173 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June. 
Manuring with the Hoe. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist. 
If cultivators have followed the advice of the 
Agriculturist , their barn-yards, stables, poultry- 
houses, wood-sheds, and every other spot from 
which manure could be gathered, are now as 
clean as scraping could make them, and the 
precious deposits have been removed to the 
fields, to be manufactured into corn, potatoes, 
and other produce. But many of us are lack¬ 
ing yet. In breaking up a ten-acre field 
for corn, for instance, one would scarce¬ 
ly think of leaving two acres unem¬ 
ployed because he had only manure 
enough to give a thorough dressing to 
eight acres; so the fertilizing material is 
spread thinner and there is 20 per cent 
.ess than there should be. I know the 
manure merchants advise to make up 
this want by purchasing their com¬ 
pounds, but I don’t know that it will 
pay us, if it does them. Now I propose a 
plan which I have found to work well, 
which is, to manure with the hoe. Fre¬ 
quent stirring of the soil, by keeping the 
surface loose and porous, lets the air in 
more freely. Air contains quite an a- 
mount of carbon in the form of gas, and 
also a little ammonia, both of which you 
teach us, go to make up the substance of vege¬ 
tables, and which are extracted from the soil by 
the roots. Then, again, if the surface is kept 
open, the water from below will rise to supply 
the place of that evaporated, and will bring with 
it the matters which it has dissolved, which can 
also be taken up by the roots. In addition to 
this, every weed which has been stealing nour¬ 
ishment from the soil, can be made to give it 
back with interest, by hoeing it into the earth, 
where it will decay and furnish plant food. So, 
if manure be scarce, we can partly make it 
up by extra cultivation. Corn in this section is 
usually plowed and hoed twice, or three times 
if the owner is not too busy; I would go 
through it five or even six times with a horse- 
hoe, or cultivator, and I believe that each time 
would add five bushels an acre to the yield. Of 
course, as the roots extend, the surface only 
should be stirred, so as not to injure them. 
Jonathan. 
—-- . ■« »»—-v-——— 
Mowers and Reapers. 
Mowers and Reapers are a good deal like sew¬ 
ing machines. That patent is usually thought, 
by the owner, to be the best, which he happens 
to have, and knows how to work. There are 
several whose merits are so nearly equally bal¬ 
anced, that it would take a very nice judge, and 
a very intimate acquaintance with the working 
of the machines, to determine which was supe¬ 
rior. Indeed, competent judges would be like¬ 
ly to come to a different conclusion. Any one 
of the better class of mowers is so great an im¬ 
provement upon the scythe, that it will pay for 
itself in two seasons upon any large farm. It 
will mow an acre an hour, easily, and this puts 
the hay harvest so completely in the power of 
the farmer, that he can cut it just in the season 
when it is most valuable for fodder. 
In answer to repeated inquiries, we can only 
eay that there are several first-rate implements, 
Detween which we can hardly decide in such a 
way as would be best for every locality. Com¬ 
mon sense, your own observation, and the ex¬ 
perience of uninterested neighbors are the best 
aouwes of information. Any one of those ad¬ 
vertised in this journal, is worth buying, we 
believe. They have all proved good. 
How to Scour a Plow. —Henry M. Clark, 
Ozaukee Co., Wis., writes that having left his 
plow standing in the field all winter, of course, 
the cast iron parts were badly rusted. He ap¬ 
plied a good coat of spirits turpentine, and the 
following week, when commencing to plow, all 
was scoured bright ‘ as a dollar ’ in going twen¬ 
ty rods. Better not to have left it out. 
and what not, may be made of good stuff, then 
painted two or three coats, of a color resem¬ 
bling weather stained wood. The table and 
seats may be made movable, so as to be carried 
into a shed or upper loft during the Winter. 
They would then last for many years. By this 
plan we might have a rustic-looking building, 
without the objectionable features before men¬ 
tioned, and one not costing a great sum. 
Another suggestion: One of the prettiest 
modes of embellishing a summer-house, is 
to suspend rustic baskets of flowers 
from the roof or the brackets. These 
baskets may be lined Avith moss, and then 
almost any climbing plants groAving in 
pots, may be set into the basket. The 
Maurandias, the English Ivy, the Money¬ 
wort, and other things, succeed admira¬ 
bly. They look beautiful when tAvining 
around the cords which suspend the 
basket, and trailing gracefully belOAV it. 
Rustic Summer-Houses, etc. 
A great deal has been said in favor of these 
adornments of a country-place: we have done 
something in this journal tOAvards advocating 
them. No one can deny that it is a pleasant 
sight to see ingeniously contrived arbors, trel¬ 
lises and seats scattered about the grounds of a 
rural home. But, to make them satisfactory in 
the highest degree, they must be made of the 
most durable materials. Constructed of cedar 
posts and branches, and of large grape-vines, 
they will last indefinitely; but built, as they of¬ 
ten are, of beech and elm, and other perishable 
woods of the forest, they soon go to destruction. 
We have lately examined seA r eral rustic houses 
built as follows: Four of the six sides Avere 
boarded up with bass-AVOod slabs; the roof Avas 
made of pine boards, and then bass-Avood bark 
was tacked on to give it a picturesque look. 
The seats were of pine boards, with bass-wood 
bark again, and for the same purpose, probably. 
A table in the center was made of hemlock 
boards, having maple rods tacked on to cover 
the hemlock. 
Now, this sort of Avork looks A r ery well and 
very rustic while it is new, but the carpenter 
has hardly laid doAA r n his saAV and hammer, be¬ 
fore decay sets in. The rain lodges in the bass- 
Avood bark of the roof and the sides, and they 
forthwith begin to rot. Then, insects of vari¬ 
ous sorts and sizes find a congenial home there, 
and the summer lodge which Avas expected to 
be a pleasant retreat for the ladies and children, 
becomes positively disagreeable. Ugh! see the 
ugly bugs! and the horrid worms ! they ex¬ 
claim, in affright, and run away to more conge¬ 
nial places. Now, it is poor economy to put up 
a building that must so soon perish; and it is 
Avaste of time to build a pleasure-house in Avhich 
the dear ones can find no pleasure. A rustic 
house, avc repeat, should be of the most durable 
wood, and bug-proof, or let it not be built. 
We have another plan to suggest: Let a model 
be fixed upon, resembling ordinary rustic-work, 
but let it be wrought from good, Avell-seasoned 
pine. The posts may be of cedar, if convenient, 
but the arches, lattice-Avork, roof, seats, tables, 
Answers to Inquiries about Illinois. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist. 
Once more through the medium of your 
very valuable paper, Avhich really seems 
ubiquitous, I will endeavor to reply to 
several letters of inquiry about Illinois 
lands, from those Avho Avrite to me, “ I read your 
article in the American Agriculturist ,” etc., etc. 
This morning comes another from Virginia, 
and every few days they come, some with 
stamps enclosed, some without. But to my sub¬ 
ject. “How is the health of your county?” 
To this question it is an easy matter to reply, if 
I merely say, as good as any in Illinois. The 
health of a country depends upon its situation, 
the water used for drinking, and the manner of 
living, including food, dress, and lodging. 
During a residence of four years in Christian 
Co., Ill., in the middle of a large prairie, my 
family suffered from no sickness, except an epi¬ 
demic dysentery in 1859, Avhich carried off two 
of my children, the only ones attacked. Many 
of my neighbors, however, new settlers like our¬ 
selves, suffered much for the first tAVo years res¬ 
idence from Intermittent Fever. I believe the 
unfinished condition of their dwellings, the man¬ 
ner of eating, living, and sleeping in the same 
room, the use of improper food, and of surface 
water to drink, Avith inattention to dress, were 
the principal causes of sickness. As these were 
improved upon, their sickness Avas less. Sick¬ 
ness, however, will prevail more or less in cer¬ 
tain localities, owing to causes Avhich are diffi¬ 
cult to obviate at once, such as want of drainage, 
clearing, etc. 
“Hoav is it timbered and watered?” The 
larger part of Christian Co. is prairie, interspers¬ 
ed Avith belts of timber and small groves, the 
most of which are in the hands of settlers or 
speculators, and as a general thing there is more 
sickness there, than in the open prairie. Fire 
wood is easy to get near the timber, but difficult 
in the prairie, the settler’s there mostly using 
coal, procured at the railroad station, Assump¬ 
tion, or at the mines in Shelby (adjacent) coun¬ 
ty, price 8 cents a bushel at mines, 14 cents at 
railroad. Timber and all kinds of lumber pro¬ 
cured readily at railroad station, at prices vary¬ 
ing with quality. In the timber and more hilly 
portion of the county, around Taylorville, 
county seat, and the branches of the Sangam- 
mon, there are springs. Well water is gener¬ 
ally used, however, although cistern Avater ia 
being introduced, Avhich is certainly the best. 
