304 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
To Improve Sandy Soils. 
The defect in such soils is chiefly of this sort: 
They are mechanically defective, being so light 
and porous that they can not retain moisture, or 
manure, if applied. Besides, they are gener¬ 
ally wanting in various important elements of 
plant growth. Therefore, to improve them, we 
must endeavor to supply these radical defects. 
The first point can he gained by spreading a 
coat of clay over the surface and dragging it in. 
This will improve its texture, and will also im¬ 
part fertility. Adhesiveness and strength hav¬ 
ing been gained, manure from the barn-yard 
may be applied as fast as it can be procured. 
Another method is to dress such lands with 
rough composts. Prepare the heaps at leisure, 
in the barn-yard. The ingredients may be such 
as these: ten loads of stable dung mixed with 
five loads of clayey soil, twenty bushels of ashes, 
and the same amount of lime. After these ar¬ 
ticles have been well incorporated, let the mass 
lie for a month or two; then it will be ready 
for use. Such a compost, it is easy to see, will 
be more enduring, and better in all respects, 
than the same bulk of barn-yard manure. It 
will improve the quality of the land permanent¬ 
ly, and will enrich it with a fertility which will 
be very lasting. On every farm of the kind here 
supposed, there should'be one or more compost 
heaps of some sort constantly building. 
A Ring for the Bull’s Nose. 
A young bull is sometimes very handsome, 
and a very pleasant thing to pet and fondle. 
Sometimes children cosset and handle him in 
the pasture and yard for a year or two, when 
suddenly, the animal turns upon them, first in 
play, and then in fury, and they hardly escape 
with their lives.' Not a year now passes, in 
which we do not hear of some farmer who, be¬ 
ing in the field among his cattle, is set upon 
by his fine bull, tossed in the air, gored to death, 
or in some way wounded more or less severely, 
and perhaps maimed for life. 
The only safe way to handle these creatures, 
is to put a stout ring in the nose of each. When 
this is once done, it is for life. The operation 
is not so cruel as some imagine, certainly no 
more so than the barbaric practice of boring our 
children’s ears, for hanging rings in them. (Why 
, Bull-ring. 
, not bore their noses, as well ?■) Get a 
| cutting punch a little larger than the 
ring to be inserted, and the cartilage 
of the nose can be perforated at a single 
blow, and that with little pain to the 
bull. Then put in the ring, screw the 
parts together, (as shown in the cut,) 
and the wound will soon heal over. 
With this simple contrivance, the most 
vicious animal can be safely managed. 
In leading a fractious bull,' it is al¬ 
ways best to have a stout, six-foot; ash 
'or hickory staff upon which is a spiral¬ 
ly bent end ot iron, called a “ twist hook;” or 
to which, by a few links of a chain, a “ snap- 
hook” is firmly attached. A bull will never tear 
bis ring out while being held or led by hand. 
Tied to a post, or behind a cart, sometimes by a 
sudden start he will tear out the ring before he 
realizes what he is about. In such a case, if 
seized at once by the nose, he maybe held. But 
no animal should ever be fastened in this way. 
A rope around the 
horns is the proper 
fastening, and if by 
any means this gets 
loose or breaks, then 
the ring will generally 
hold. The ring affords 
an easy means of get¬ 
ting hold of a fractious 
bull in a pen, box stall, 
or stable, by means of 
a “bull-leader” as des¬ 
cribed and shown in 
the cut. What fanner 
or patriot will not say: 
Anything, oh! any¬ 
thing, to prevent a 
Bull-run, whether on the farm or the battle field! 
The “leading-clasps” are of various forms, in 
general, however, like the one shown in the cut 
annexed, and differing in the manner in which 
they open and shut, and are held shut. The ball- 
tipped ends separated, are placed within the nos¬ 
trils, and are then closed together, space being 
left for the cartilage of the nose between them. 
They can not be unclasped by any action of the 
bull, nor tom out without subjecting him to as 
great pain as if a ring were torn out. These 
clasps are very convenient for leading any neat 
animal which is not perfectly docile. When 
there is any doubt who is master, a ring or lead¬ 
ing-clasp affords to the mind of the animal a 
very ready solution of the question. For bulls, 
however, the permanent nose-jewel above de¬ 
scribed is decidedly preferable. 
Notes on the May Agriculturist. 
BY A WESTERN FARMER. 
Central Park Conservatory, p. 133.—One of the 
best things possible—and the Parsons are the very 
men to manage such an enterprise honorably and 
successfully. With a few other attachments, such 
as an arboretum, a herbarium, an aquarium, and a 
zoological garden, as we hope some day to see, the 
New-York Central Park will become the most at¬ 
tractive spot in North America. 
Six Good Pears, p. 133.—I can name six better ones : 
to wit.: Bloodgood, or Osband’s Summer, of which 
you may take your choice, or have both, for early; 
Bartlett, White, and Gray Doyenne, or Virgalieu— 
if you can grow them without cracking; Brown 
Beurre, -Seckel, Winter Nellis, Glout Morceau. 
These will all grow on the quince for dwarfs, as 
well as the “ six good ones,” if double worked— 
if folks will insist on having, dwarfs—and they 
flourish finely on standards. Why our nurserymen 
will continue to laud up such coarse and flavorless 
things as the Duchesse, and Vicar, I can’t imagine, 
only that they are showy, and succeed better on 
the quince than almost any thing else. As table 
fruit they are worthless, and for cooking, decidedly 
inferior to a score of others. [But the fruit sells, 
sometimes at a dollar a pear.—En.] 
An Agricultural Bureau — Who shall be at the Head 
of it, p. 136.—Nobody—unless he can be better than 
any thing who has yet figured in that department. 
Genl. Banks may be a good man for aught I know, 
provided he’ll throw aside his politics—when he 
gets there. Such an office needs a common-sense 
man, whose tastes and proclivities are decidedly 
agricultural, and has gumption enough to discrimi¬ 
nate between the pretensions of quacks, and hon¬ 
est, well-tried experience. The' trade of adminis¬ 
tering such a Department of the Government, has 
yet to be learned by whoever may be the incum¬ 
bent, and the office should not be one of rotation, 
or removable without cause. 
Bead Animals for Manure, p. 140.—True, every 
word of it; and if men would only believe such 
things, thousands of dead carcasses which every 
year pollute the air with their putridity would be 
turned into the most fertilizing materials. 
Tim Bunker on the Horn-Ail, p. 140.—“ Tim” is a 
great man in his line, and utters a deal of homely 
truth in his neighborhood observations. But, some¬ 
how or other, Tim’s grammar and style have won¬ 
derfully improved of late. I think he must have 
been taking evening lessons in spelling and punctu¬ 
ation of his district schoolmaster. 
The best Team on the Farm, p. 140—You can’t make 
a northern farmer drive a mule team, unless he 
goes off South and couples “niggers” with his 
mules, and then he becomes a worse “driver” of 
both than him “ to the manor born.” Off South, 
the mule is decidedly the best and most profitable 
team. I have seen scores of arguments, pro and 
con, as to the best and most profitable teams for 
northern farmers to use, and the advocate of each 
was right or wrong—according to circumstances. 
On good lands, and free soils, horses are best. On 
poor lands, and over rough soils, oxen are prefer¬ 
red. Horses are indispensable for marketing pur¬ 
poses, where a man’s time is worth any thing. In 
my own practice I have always used both, finding 
each preferable for certain kinds of labor. Every 
man must judge for himself, by his own experience, 
which of either, or both, he is to prefer. The 
whole article is capital: 
A few Hints about Plowing, p. 141.—A good article. 
But after all, the farmer must know his soil, to un¬ 
derstand the best manner of plowing it. Heavy 
clays require a different mode of plowing from fria¬ 
ble loams, or gravels; and the natural, or acquired 
fertility of the soil has much to do with it also. I 
know lands where you may bury the plow to the 
beam, and all the better for it, while in others six 
inches is abundance. One may theorize until he is 
gray, and never draw a right conclusion. Experi¬ 
ence, with theory, is the sure way to test all things. 
Sorghum Syrup far North, p. 143.—I doubt wheth¬ 
er this can be made a paying crop north of 41 p . 
The cane requires a long summer and a hot sun 
to develop its saccharine to the utmost. We have 
millions of acres of the best sorghum lands at 
about 41°, and one or two degrees south of it; and 
while they are sure for its growth, it is hardly worth 
while to run much risk for a chance crop north of it. 
Better work our lauds with something that is certain 
in production, and exchange that, or the avails of 
it, for the wwcertain ones that we need. 
Timothy Mowing-Lands, p. 143.—Partly true, and 
partly not. Timothy is not “ apoorpasturegrass,” 
and “ every body ” don't “ know it.” I assert it to 
be among the very best of pasture grasses, and if 
anybody don’t believe it, let him turn his stock into 
a field of mixed grasses, and wherever the timothy 
predominates, see how eagerly they will crop 
it in preference to the others. Timothy can be fed 
too close, I acknowledge, and it should never be fed 
in the Spring of the year. Nor should heavy stock 
ever be turned upon it when the ground is soft, as 
late in the Fall or Winter, for their heavy tread 
willpofiA and destroy it. I have had timothy, with 
other grasses, in pasture for more than twenty 
yeai’s, where it holds its own with them, and has 
been pastured with every thing that eats grass on 
the farm. My rule is always to sow a good share 
of timothy on both pasture and mowing lands 
when I lay them down with red clover. The blue 
grass and white clover will come in of themselves 
where the land is natural to them; and so will red- 
top, on moist grounds—one of the best of our grass¬ 
es for either pasture, or hay. 
The Apple Orchard , p. 145.—A good article, and 
■ to appearance, by a practiced hand.- As to varieties 
for cultivation, no positive rules, irrespective of soil . 
