298 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
water-way must be made completely around the 
wall, and in either case, the water that may 
gather beneath the wall, should be oarried off 
through a drain made expressly for it. Without 
this outlet, it is useless to make drains beneath the 
cellar, for if the water is not quickly carried away, 
it will rise in the soil outside, and inside the cellar 
through the floor, as badly as before. 
A Method of Blasting Logs. 
To break up very knotty logs, that are difficult 
to split, the easiest method is by blasting. This 
might be more readily done, in many cases, if some 
substitute were provided for the tamping needed 
to confine the powder. Where sand, pounded stone, 
or other material for tamping, is scai'ce, an iron 
screw may be used as a substitute. A screw of the 
proper kind is shown at figure 1. This is made li- 
ineh in diameter, so as to fit tightly in a lj-inch 
hole, and is provided with a square head, by which 
Fig. 1.— TAMPING SCREW. 
it may be turned with a wrench of any kind. A 
hole is drilled through the screw to hold the fuse. 
The manner of using it is shown at figure 2. A 
hole is bored to reach the center of the log, and the 
charge is placed there as usual, the space above 
the powder is partly filled with sand, and the screw 
is turned down tightly upon it; the fuse of course 
having been adjusted. To prevent the screw from 
being thrown away by the explosion and lost, it 
Fig. 2.— -METHOD OF BLASTING. 
will be necessary to roll the log over so that the 
screw will bo thrown against the ground, or to 
place some pieces of timber upon it. Care must 
be taken to do either of these in such a manner 
as will not prevent the fuse from burning. 
Tli3 Amsrican Silk Manufacture. 
In I860 the production of silk in America was 
valued at iwo million dollars. In 1876 the value of 
the silk made in this country was not less than 
twenty-five million dollars. No branch of manu¬ 
facturing industry has advanced more rapidly than 
this, and none promises to grow more steadily in 
the future. But it is worthy of note that the raw 
material for this manufacture is wholly imported, 
or the exception is so trifling that it need not be 
taken into account. At the same time, no country 
in the world possesses a finer climate and soil for the 
rearing of the silk worm, and the cultivation of 
the trees upon the leaves of which it feeds. 
Unfortunately, the light, easy, agreeable industry 
of breeding and rearing the worms and reeling the 
fibre from the cocoons, is not considered as being 
worthy the notice of farmers,-or farmers’ families. 
Yet the day of small things has not wholly passed 
away, and indications seem to point to a necessary 
return to the smaller industries of the family, which 
have been abandoned or neglected during the 
flourishing times of the past few years. Every¬ 
thing is tending towards the exercise of economy 
in small a3 well as great things, and an industry 
which may profitably employ the children on the 
farm, is noo to be overlooked or despised. The 
exhibilion of silkworms and their cocoons at the 
Centennial, did much to inform the public as to 
the character of this employment. The exhibit of 
Mr. Crozier, of Silkville, Kansas, was very interest¬ 
ing in this way, and it is to be hoped may be effec¬ 
tive in turning the attention of farmers’ wives who 
have more than usual leisure, to the advantage of 
learning the methods of managing the worms and 
of teaching their daughters. The reeling of the 
silk is somewhat difficult, but the machine needed 
for it is very simple,and can be worked by a little girl. 
Several million dollars a year might be distributed 
amongst farmers’ families, that are now sent abroad 
for the purchase of raw silk, if only the attention 
of those who arc able to do this easy work were 
effectively turned to it. In California, the raising 
of silkworms’ eggs is an important industry, but in 
this the silk is sacrificed, or at most, the cocoons 
from which the moth or parent insect has escaped, 
have a very low value for carding purposes. 
Seed-Grain will stand ant amount'of Cold. 
—At a late meeting of the Linnean Society of Lon¬ 
don, apotof growing wheat was exhibited which 
was raised from some of the grain left at Polaris 
Bay, 81° 33' N. lat., by the American polar expedi¬ 
tion, in 1872, exposed to all the intense cold of that 
region. A sample of this grain was sown at Kew 
Gardens, and about two-thirds of the grains germi¬ 
nated. So did two peas, and a grain of Indian corn. 
The Economy of Agricultural Machinery. 
It is plainly evident that to make the business of 
farming profitable, at the present time, it must be 
carried on by the help of all possible economical 
aids. No farmer can afford to cut hay with the 
scythe, or grain with the cradle, now-a-days. It 
costs too much, and the farmer whose produce 
costs more than that of his neighbor, can not afford 
to sell so cheaply. But as a rale, the market price 
of any thing is, what is costs to produce it and get 
it to market. Accidental circumstances may tend 
to advance or depress the price temporarily, but it 
gradually finds it level again, by force of a rale 
which is always at work, and is of universal appli¬ 
cation. The cost of a thing is its average cost; 
there can not be two prices, one high and one low, 
at the same time, so that the average price is fixed 
between the two extremes of highest and lowest 
cost. Therefore, he who produces any thing at the 
least cost, makes an extra profit; he who produces 
at a mean cost, makes a fair profit, and the one 
whose product costs the highest, fails to secure any 
profit, but may gain a loss instead. Now the actual 
cost of a thing is measured by the labor required to 
produce it. If a day’s labor is worth $2.50, and four 
days’ labor are required to produce a ton of hay, by 
the help of the best labor-saving implements, and 
eight days are required to produce it without the 
aid of these, the probable selling price will be $15 
per ton. One man will be paid $3.75 per day, at 
this price, and another will only receive $1.87£; 
and if the latter hires any labor, he will not get 
his money back. This illustration is of as wide 
application to agricultural industry as to all others. 
To apply it to the making of hay, for instance, we 
may see how much profit may be gained from the 
investment of a certain sum of money in haying 
machinery. A full set, including mower, tedder, 
rake, loader, and hay-fork, and carrier, may cost 
about $350. With care, these may be made to last 
20 years, in which time a yearly allowance of 10 
per cent will pay for them, and also the interest on 
the cost with necessary repairs. The charge will 
therefore be $35 a year for the use of all this ma¬ 
chinery. If there are only 10 acres of land in hay, 
to be mowed each year, the charge per acre will be 
$3.50. This must be saved out @f the sum that 
would otherwise be necessarily expended for hand- 
labor. A probable estimate, founded upon what we 
have been able to do, or have seen done with ma¬ 
chinery, and what we have had done by hand-labor, 
may be made as here given, viz : The cost of mak¬ 
ing 5 acres of hay by machinery, will be about equal 
to the labor of two men for one day and a half, cost¬ 
ing, at $1.50 a day, $4.50. This may seem a very 
low estimate, but when we can cut one acre of 
good grass per hour, with such a mower as the 
Champion Haymaker, or the Buckeye, and by the 
use of a tedder, horse-rake, and hay-fork, have 
some of the 5 acres of hay safe in the barn beforo 
night, and the remainder all in before noon the 
next day, the estimate is a reasonable one. It is 
supposed that the weather is all that can be wished, 
and with everything in favor of quick work, it will 
be more than we have found four average laborers 
will do, to have 5 acres of grass down in one day 
when using scythes. The turning, curing, and rak¬ 
ing, may easily occupy these men two days, and one 
day more will be Occupied in loading and unloading' 
it into the barn. The cost will be then $24.00. The 
difference is $19.50, or more than the $3.50 per acre. 
But with a set of haying machinery, 50 acres can be 
harvested with ease in the time required by four 
men without it. In this case, the cost per acre is 
very much less, and just here it might be pointed 
out, how great an advantage the owner of a large 
farm enjoys, through the help of machinery, over 
the occupant of a smaller one. It used to be the 
other way, and a small, compact farm could be 
rather more profitably managed than a large one. 
But while this is true yet, there is a certain benefit 
accruing to even so small a farm as that which has 
but 10 acres of grass to cut yearly. 
This is but one instance among many which might 
be pointed out. In the cutting of fodder, the cost 
of a good fodder-cutter may be saved in the more 
economical feeding of a single cow or horse ; for 
thrashing, we have found it profitable to own a 
horse tread-power and thrashing machine for a 90- 
aere farm, and so on through the whole list of im¬ 
plements and machinery. The time has come 
when, in the close and unavoidable competion, not 
only of farmers with farmers, but of agriculture 
with other industries, it is absolutely necessary that 
every help should be secured that can cheapen the 
product, else a man will labor against so many dif¬ 
ficulties, that he will either be overworked, or will 
become embarrassed for want of sufficient remu¬ 
neration. Hand labor cannot compete with horse 
labor, nor horse labor with steam. The unaided 
hand cannot compete with the united brains of in¬ 
ventors and mechanics, nor can the man who has 
no capital to assist him, succeed in competition 
with his neighbor, who is able to thoroughly stock 
and furnish his farm. It cannot be denied, that in 
some cases farming does not pay; this is not the 
fault of farming, but of the manner in which the 
industry is managed. It is true, and “pity ’tis, 
’tis true,” that this fact has a very uncomfortable 
inference for some farmers, but we see no help for 
that but in their keeping up with the times. 
Insurance of Farm Buildings. 
No farmer can afford to have his homestead or 
buildings uninsured. To have them burned by ac¬ 
cident would be ruinous to him, and a conflagra¬ 
tion, which may occur at any moment, might in¬ 
volve the loss of buildings, tools, implements, live 
stock, and crops. No farmer can afford to ran this 
risk while safe insurance is to be had so cheaply. 
But unless the insurance is procured in a perfectly 
safe and honorable company, the policy is hardly 
to be held as any security. In choosing a com¬ 
pany in which to insure, it would be wise to select 
one which does an extensive business throughout 
the country, and thus lessens the risk of loss, aver¬ 
aging, as it were, its risks. Those insured are always 
more watchful and careful of danger. The wise 
precautions enforced by the insurance company, 
beget a habit of precaution and carefulness on the 
part of the insured, particularly when it is known 
that a want of care, and the reckless use of lights 
and fire, will vitiate a policy. Then dangerous 
and explosive oils will be avoided, and only those 
that are known to be perfectly safe to use, will be 
burned. There will be no smoking in the barn, nor 
matches left loosely on the girts or sills. It is a 
peculiarity of mankind that they will more readily 
obey any regulations made for them, than follow 
their own knowledge of what ought to be done. 
Men would rather be governed than govern them- 
