1862 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
231 
Turnips—The Last Chance. 
It is one of the excellencies of the turnip, that 
it is always in order, from May to September. 
We have sowed turnips as late as the 1st of the 
latter month, and got well paid for the labor. 
An y spare patch of ground, where other crops 
have failed, or have been removed, may be 
turned to good account by sowing turnip seed. 
Turnips come in, as a substitute, for many other 
crops, and a smart farmer may even now make 
up a deficiency in hay or grain, by the aid of 
turnips. And it is worthy of notice, that dry 
Summers, which pinch those crops, are usually 
followed by wet Autumns, which are very fa¬ 
vorable to turnips. There is a special reason for 
making the most of this crop the present season. 
The demand for grain and breadstuffs is like¬ 
ly to be unusually large. Not to speak of the 
foreign market, there will be a great demand at 
home. The operations of the war must have 
diminished the product of grains somewhat in 
the North, and still more in the South. With 
all the efforts of the Confederate Government to 
secure an increased supply of breadstuffs, at 
home, it is not likely that the South will pro¬ 
duce as much grain as usual. Every plantation 
has felt the excitement of the times, and it is 
impossible, under such circumstances, to get 
the usual amount of labor from slaves. Our ad¬ 
vancing armies have found destitution -in many 
places, and there is, doubtless, much more that 
has not been heard of. There can not fail to be 
a very great demand for provisions in the 
Southern States, as soon as they are thrown 
open again to commerce. It becomes us, then, 
to make the most of the season that is left us, in 
raising all the turnips we can. The hay crop is 
short in many parts of the North, and turnips 
will save hay. They will also save grain in 
feeding pigs, sheep, horses, and cattle. They 
will make mutton and wool, beef, and pork. 
The White French, and the Sweet German, 
or Rock Turnip, may be transplanted still. 
They will grow as readily as cabbage, and make 
a fine crop. There are yet a hundred days be¬ 
fore the frosts will injure them. A little bone- 
dust, or superphosphate, will give them a start. 
For broadcast sowing, in the corn and potato 
fields, the strap-leaf, cow-horn varieties are ex¬ 
cellent. We have grown them at a cost of four 
cents a bushel, and at this price they are plieap 
feed for all stock that relish them. Improve all 
the waste patches in the field and garden with 
a sprinkling of turnip seed. 
Washing Carriages and Wagons. 
It is a great annoyance to have a nicely paint¬ 
ed carriage scratched by careless or ignorant 
hands in washing it. Yet how often is this done! 
A broom and .pail of water sometimes consti¬ 
tute the whole equipment; possibly, an old rag 
is throw in. The broom or rag is wetted, and 
dashed on the smooth surface of the vehicle, and 
the scrubbing proceeds, until the mud is washed 
off, and some of the varnish and paint, beside. 
Now, the right way of doing this is veiy simple. 
First of all, give the mud a thorough soaking 
with water, when water from a hose can not be 
used, using a common garden syringe or sprink¬ 
ling-pot. Soak it again, and not a little of the 
mud will run off without any rubbing. With the 
surface thoroughly saturated, , begin with a large 
sponge full of water, wash gently, depending 
still more upon the water than the rubbing. A 
large, soft cloth will answer, if a sponge can not 
be had. After the mud and grit has all been 
washed off, give it another sprinkling or two, and 
after taking off the excess of water with a soft 
sponge, rub the whole clean and dry with a piece 
of soft chamois leather. See that this is per¬ 
fectly free from grit or knotty places. It will re¬ 
move lint and dust, and leave the varnish clean 
and brilliant. 
Domestic Guano. 
It is an old story, we know, but one which 
will bear repeating, that farmers should take all 
possible pains to make the best use of their 
home manures, before buying any foreign ferti¬ 
lizers. Take the single item of hen-dung. It is 
one of the most powerful fertilizers in the world, 
for the reason, chiefly, that it contains the liquid 
and solid excrements together. Prof. Norton 
says: “ It is found to be particularly rich in ni¬ 
trogen, and also in phosphates. The manure of 
pigeons, hens, ducks, geese, and turkeys, is very 
valuable, and should be carefully collected. 
The amount to be obtained from these sources 
may be thought so insignificant as to be unwor¬ 
thy of notice; but it must be remembered that 
three or four hundred pounds of such manure, 
that has not been exposed to rain or sun, is worth 
at least 14 to 18 loads of ordinary manure." 
Of course, this dung should not be applied to 
plants in its crude, concentrated form—it would 
kill seeds or roots at once. The true way is to 
place the roosts where the droppings can be 
gathered up. Then sprinkle the floor beneath 
with charcoal-dust or gypsum. Where these 
are not convenient to be had, prepare a heap of 
dried muck, well pulverized, and spread it un¬ 
der the perches twice a week. Shovel and 
sweep up the whole mixture once a fortnight, 
and put the same in barrels. Pursue this plan 
until near planting time. Then empty your bar¬ 
rels on the barn-floor, and mix the heap with 
more plaster, ashes, or muck, so that the hen- 
dung will finally be about half of the mixture. 
Dampen the compost a little with water, cover 
the heap with old mats, and let it lie until want¬ 
ed in the field. Apply it to corn at the rate of a 
gill to a hill; but be careful to cover it with a 
little earth before dropping the seed. Use it al¬ 
so at the same rate for potatoes, mixing it a lit¬ 
tle with the soil at planting. It may also be 
drilled in with wheat, using it, however, in al¬ 
most as moderate quantities as guano. If barn¬ 
yard manure is also used broadcast, ten bushels 
of this fertilizer will be abundant for an acre. It 
would richly pay any farmer or gardener to buy 
hen-droppings at half a dollar a bushel. Cer¬ 
tainly it is unwise to give them away, as some 
do, to the tanners. 
So with other home-made fertilizers. Some 
sort of absorbent should be kept constantly on 
hand, and nigh at hand, convenient for use at all 
seasons of the year. Dried peat or muck, coal- 
ashes, saw-dust, chip-manure, tan-bark,—all will 
answer a good purpose. Throw a little, once a 
week, into the privy-vault. It will keep down 
all unpleasant odors, save the waste of urine, 
and make the bulk of material double in quan¬ 
tity and value. When the time comes for the 
annual cleaning out, Patrick will not make up a 
wry face, at all at all. Mix the contents with as 
much more of common soil, and in the course 
of a few months, we shall have a large pile of 
excellent, safe and not offensive manure. 
Few persons are aware how much can be ac¬ 
complished in a single year by saving and using 
the slops of kitchen and chamber. We know 
of more than one man, who, on hiring a village 
house and garden, with the soil nearly worn out, 
has made it quite productive, chiefly by this sim¬ 
ple means. One of these pursued the following 
course : Not being able to buy much manure, 
he placed a tight barrel near the kitchen door, 
where it could receive daily offerings from up 
staffs and down staffs, and weekly gifts from 
the wash-tub. Every night, in Summer, on re¬ 
turning from his shop, Mr. K. took pail and wa¬ 
tering pot, and scattered the rich slops between 
his rows of cabbages, beets, potatoes, beans, etc. 
The rains fell often enough to dilute his liquids. 
In the fall, it appeared that his worn out ground 
yielded better than that of his fore-handed 
neighbors. 
Our advice would be to dig a pit somewhere 
in the rear of the dwelling, wall it up with 
slabs, plank, or brick, and conduct all the slops 
of the house into it through a drain. Into this 
reservoir, cast, from week to week, all manner 
of absorbents. When the pit is filled, it will be 
worth a good deal of money. But let each man 
take his own way of economizing. Only, let 
some plan be pursued of saving all the refuse 
perishable material about a place, and convert¬ 
ing it into manure. This is the way to fertilize 
land, and to feed its occupants. 
Tobacco Cultivation—lo. VI. 
We are forced to be quite brief in our direc¬ 
tions for the culture of tobacco. The season has 
arrived for the most vigilant, watchful care of 
the Tobacco crop. The leaves are so far ma¬ 
tured that the worms, if they have any chance, 
do great damage before the owner knows it. 
The tops are running up, and yet are too weak 
to sustain high winds—as the stalks are brittle. 
Topping should proceed at once, or as soon 
as the plants attain sufficient hight. It is diffi¬ 
cult to lay down precise rules for topping tobac¬ 
co, yet the judgment of the cultivator can hard¬ 
ly lead him far astray. The hight at which the 
flower stem is broken off depends upon the gen¬ 
eral vigor of the plant, and the size of the leaves. 
The size of the leaves rapidly diminishes in the 
Connecticut seed-leaf variety after the 12th to 
to the 16th leaf on thrifty plants, and such are 
usually topped 2, or at most 3, feet from the 
ground. Plants of less vigor should be topped 
lower;—the farmer using his judgment as to 
how many leaves the root will perfect. The la¬ 
ter the season, the lower should the plants be 
topped, as it is the more necessary that the 
whole energies of the plant should be directed 
to maturing a few leaves. 
Of . course, all those various circumstances 
which affect the growth of tobacco, affect also 
the hight and time of topping. When this is 
done, no more leaves grow ; but those left, es¬ 
pecially the upper ones, feel the influence at 
once, and grow most rapidly, and if the weath¬ 
er is favorable, very soon ripen. Meanwhile the 
buds in the axils of the leaves push with almost 
inconceivable vigor, and must be pinched or 
broken out as fast as they grow, so that all the 
sap shall go into the leaves. As they ripen, 
they become turgid and brittle, with swollen 
veins and tissues apparently bursting with sap, 
very different from the soft pliability of a young 
and growing leaf. Tobacco growers, at the 
North at least, usually top their plants when the 
stalks begin to run up rapidly and branch, break¬ 
ing them off at the 3d or 4th leaf below where it 
branches. This is about 2£ to 3 feet high. Re¬ 
member, one frost will probably make a finish 
of your tobacco, therefore leave no more leaves 
than will ripen before frost. The leaves are 
very brittle, except in the heat of the day. 
