AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
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Harvesting Beans. 
It seems to be supposed by some, that beans 
should remain in the field ungathered, imtil they 
are fully ripe and ready to shell out. Experi¬ 
ence shows that this is neither necessary nor 
wise. Watch for the time when the leaves of 
the plant begin to turn yellow, and the pods 
have become plump and hard. Then pull and 
stack them up in the field loosely, putting a few 
stones or cross-pieces of wood underneath each 
stack, to keep the bottom tier dry, and to pro¬ 
mote ventilation of the whole. Do not forget to 
stake them firmly, to prevent the stacks from 
blowing over. 
Beans so managed, will ripen a good deal af¬ 
ter being gathered, and will command a much 
higher price hi market than if they had 
been left standing longer, and so been nipped 
by the frost, and draggled and soaked in the 
mud. Let them remain tlius stacked until dry 
enough for thrashing. 
How Linseed and Cotton Seed Oil, and Oil 
Cake are Made. 
The cultivation of flax belongs to the age of 
homespun, and has gone by, as a general crop in 
this country. Fifty years ago it was common 
on almost every farm, and the brake, the hatch- 
el, the swingling board, and knife, were as much 
farming tools, as the dung fork and the plow. 
In doors were the spinning wheel for flax, and 
the loom, where the linen and tow cloth were 
made for Summer wear. Flax seed was then 
abundant, and oil mills for pressing the seed 
were to be found at convenient centers. But 
many of the present generation have never seen 
such an establishment, and have no idea of the 
process of making linseed oil. Though flax is 
Still raised in this country in particular locali¬ 
ties, the crop does not meet our demands. 
Large quantities of seed are imported, mainly 
from Russia, England, and the British East In¬ 
dies. In the year 1855 over a million bushels 
were brought to this country from the British 
East Indies alone. 
In making .the oil, quite a variety of machine¬ 
ry is used—more or less expensive, according to 
the enterprise and capital of the manufacturer. 
The seed is first passed through iron rollers, to 
be crushed or ground. One of these rollers is 
made to revolve more rapidly than the other, 
which subjects each seed to a pulling, as well 
as crushing process. The meal is taken from 
the mill to the “chasers” where it is subjected to 
another crashing process, more severe than the 
first. The chasers are two large circular stones, 
about five feet in diameter and eighteen inches 
thick, rolling upon a third stone, in the manner 
of an old fashioned bark or cider-mill. These 
heavy stones start the oil from the meal, and to 
keep it from adhering to the chasers, it is moist¬ 
ened with water. 
The meal is next put into an iron cylinder 
which is kept revolving over a fire until the wa¬ 
ter is evaporated. Much of the skill in the art 
of making oil depends upon this heating pro¬ 
cess. It must not be scorched, and yet it wants 
to be brought up to a high temperature; so that 
it will readily give out its oil. The presses are 
of various structure, some of them patented, and 
others not open to public inspection. In the one 
that we saw, the vats or hoops, holding about 
two bushels each, were placed opposite each 
other against two immense beams, or uprights, 
made fast in the foundations of the building. 
I The followers were forced down upon the meal 
by two large levers worked by hydraulic pow¬ 
er. The meal is kept under pressure about an 
hour, and the two presses work up about ninety 
six bushels of seed every twenty four hours. 
The mill is kept running night and day for six 
days in the week. The product is not far from 
two gallons of oil to a bushel of seed, a little 
more or less, according to the quality of the seed 
and the skill in pressing. The cakes as taken 
from the press, are sometimes sold by the tun 
without grinding. They are generally export¬ 
ed in this form. Where there is a market in 
the vicinity of the mill, the cakes are put under 
the chasers, and ground into meal, bagged, and 
sent to the feed stores. The price of the cake is 
from thirty to forty dollars a tun; ground into 
meal, it retails at about two dollars a hundred 
pounds. This is the favorite feed for fattening 
stock with the British farmer, and ought to re¬ 
ceive more attention among us. 
The process of making the cotton seed oil and 
cake is nearly the same. The seed of the Upland 
cotton is surrounded with a husk to which the 
cotton adheres. It is covered with a soft down 
after it leaves the gin, and in this condition it is 
purchased from the planter. The seed makes 
better oil and better meal when it is deprived 
of this hull and • down. There are several pa¬ 
tents for decorticating the seed. One is a stone 
mill, in which the seed passes between rough 
surfaces and the bark is rubbed off. Another is 
a steel mill doing the work more perfectly. Af¬ 
ter the hulling, the treatment of the seed is the 
same as for linseed. The yield of oil is less, 
being about ninety gallons to a hundred bush¬ 
els of the Sea Island, or two gallons to fifty six 
pounds of the hulled cotton seed. The Sea 
Island seed does not need hulling. 
The cotton seed oil is comparatively a new 
article. It has not yet a steady commercial value. 
The meal is growing in favor as an article of 
fodder. It is adapted to the same uses as the 
linseed meal, and is by many thought to be as 
valuable, though it sells for about twenty five 
per cent less, The manure made from the ani¬ 
mals fed upon it, is richer in ammonia than that 
made from any other kind of stall feeding. 
There is already a considerable demand for it 
in England, and it can not be long before the 
export will exceed that of the linseed oil meal. 
An Experiment in Grinding Cotton Seed. 
We are convinced upon further reflection and 
inquiry, that the suggestion thrown out in our 
last issue upon grinding cotton seed in the com¬ 
mon grist mill, is a matter of great practical im¬ 
portance to our readers in the South. If cotton 
seed brought to the North, deprived of its oil, 
and ground into meal is worth a dollar and a 
half a hundred, it ought to be worth much more 
upon the plantation, ground before pressing, 
where feeding stuff is in great demand. 
The grand difficulty is in the business of 
grinding. The seed contains so much oil, that 
the common grist mill would probably clog with 
the pure cotton seed, and the conclusion would 
be jumped at, that the mill was unfit for the 
work. We wish, therefore, to suggest several ex¬ 
periments in grinding; first, a mixture of three 
parts of cotton seed to one of corn; secondly, 
an equal quantity of each; and thirdly, three 
parts of corn to one of cotton seed. The com 
being hard and dry, will absorb the oil, and wc 
think, keep the mill clean, so that it will do its 
work perfectly. Animals are not fond of the 
pure meal at first, and have to acquire a taste for 
it, by mixing it in small quantities with other 
palatable feeding stuff. When the taste is form¬ 
ed, they eat ravenously without any mixture. 
If our correspondent at Edward’s Depot, Miss., 
who has suggested these inquiries, would under 
take these experiments, and report them, wc 
should feel greatly obliged. The manufacture 
and use of cotton seed meal upon the plantation, 
wc are confident, will form a new era in the 
husbandly of the Gulf States. 
---- 
How to Ventilate Stacks. 
British farmers ventilate their stacks as fol¬ 
lows : They fill with straw a bag, say 3>i ft high 
and 20 inches in diameter; place it vertically in 
the center, and stack around it. As the stack 
rises, they lift the sack, and so on to the top. 
In this way a chimney is formed in the center 
of the stack, into which the steam and gases 
generated, find their way and escape readily. 
This method might be adopted with advan 
tage in stacking corn fodder. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Experience in Reclaiming Worn Out 
Meadows. 
It is often remarked by farmers that the grass 
on their older meadows has run out, and that 
they can not plant all their lots, and get round 
in time to prevent it. They practice keeping 
the land under the plow for two successive 
crops, before laying it down to grass again. 
Some take four or more successive crops ; they 
manure well, as they should, but they do not 
consider that the rest of the farm is thereby rob¬ 
bed to keep a few acres' in full bearing fertility 
Let any one do this for a dozen consecutive years 
on the same lot, and the injurious effect on his 
other fields will be unmistakably visible. My 
experience teaches a better method, because it 
increases the fertility of the soil, and renders it 
in future years more productive. 
There is much land in our county, which, 
although not swampy, is too low and humid in 
Spring and early Summer, for making sound 
and profitable corn crops. When I emigrated 
to Susquehanna some twenty five years ago, I 
soon found I had several acres of such low, wet 
soil, in one of my lots. Twice, the grass thereon 
run gut, and each time I had it up three years, 
under the usual way of treatment, taking off 
three successive crops. Each time I got a worse 
surface for the scythe, because I could not en¬ 
tirely subdue the sod; and beside, what was 
worse, I was evidently reducing- the natural 
strength of the soil. When the grass failed 
again, I ordered it to be plowed of usual depth, 
perfectly, and without a balk. The furrows 
were rolled down and harrowed lightly, to fill 
up the spaces between; and then oats and timo¬ 
thy seed were sown and -well harrowed in for 
one grain crop only. This was an experiment: 
I did not expect much—I was not disappoint¬ 
ed ; but the crop was worth, for feed, as much, if 
not more, than the hay could possibly have 
been. The next year the grass was greater 
than I had ever seen grown before, and of a su¬ 
perior quality. For five years after, the crop 
annually was equally good. 
The next year the grass was evidently failing, 
and I broke the lot up again exactly as before. 
This was in 1858. The oat crop this time -was 
full and good, having had the benefit of the old 
sod; and this year, the grass was fully equal to 
the yield of any former .year ; besides, the sod 
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