50 
AMEBIC AN AGBICULTUBIST. 
Nothing will justify this but] thin soil. The 
oat, like spring wheat, has to grow quickly, 
and has not time to tiller much. Seed 
enough, therefore, should be nppliedto allow 
it to grow up and mature at once. If sown 
broadcast, from 3 to bushels per acre, on 
good soil, are required, and sometimes four 
may be advantageously sown. If the drill 
is used for sowing in rows, two-thirds the 
quantity is sufficient. 
Harvesting is too often deferred beyond 
the proper period for securing the greatest 
value of straw and grain. The grain is in¬ 
trinsically better—more nutritive—before it 
is fully ripened, than when dead ripe. The 
straw, of course, is far preferable. The 
proper time for cutting, is when the straw 
has changed at the bottom, and the berry has 
become so hard as not to yield readily to 
pressure between the thumb and finger. It 
should have passed from the milk to the 
dough state. For seed, the oat ought to be 
well ripened before cutting. 
Curing. —Oats should be thoroughly dried 
in the field before stacking or threshing, as 
the slightest mustiness is injurious to horses. 
It impairs the nutritive value of the oats be¬ 
side rendering the animal liable to disease. 
Oats ought to be stored for some months 
after threshing before they are fit to use. 
They are apt to produce grease, flatulence, 
and rough hair, in horses that are fed upon 
them unless they have been thoroughly 
cured. 
Bruising Oats before feeding is great econ¬ 
omy, instead of feeding whole. It saves 
just so much muscular exertion of the ani¬ 
mal ; he feeds quicker, and lies down to his 
digestion much sooner; and you are only by 
this means certain that his stomach and in¬ 
testinal canal are not occupied and weakened 
by passing a quantity of whole grain, that 
imparts no nutriment to the system, after 
having absorbed largely of its gastric and 
other vital juices. The poultry and swine 
that have access to the droppings, are fre¬ 
quently more benefitted by such feeding, 
than the animals to which they are first fed. 
Cutting in tl^e Milk for Fodder. —From bad 
weather, a late season, or some other cause, 
it may be advisable to cut oats when in the 
milk, and cure them the same as hay. When 
our grass crop was short we have often 
done this, and found them as valuable for 
winter feed as the best of Timothy or Red 
Top. They ought to be cut finely (without 
threshing) with a hay-cutter, previous to 
feeding. 
A State Agricultural College. —The 
Legislature of Michigan, during its recent 
session, passed an act which makes provis¬ 
ion for the organization of an agricultural 
college, to be located within ten miles of the 
capital of the State. The objects of the 
school shall be to improve and teach the 
science and practice of agriculture. The 
branches to be taught are to include natural 
philosophy, chemistry, botany, animal and 
vegetable physiology, geology, mineralogy, 
meteorology, veterinary art, mensuration, 
leveling, political economy, book-keeping, 
and the mechanic arts connected with agri¬ 
culture. The tution is to be forever free to 
pupils within the State. From the beginning 
of April to the end of October, all the pupils 
are to be required to devote not less nor 
more than four hours to manual labor. 
SALE OF THE WEBSTER ESTATE AND STOCK 
AT MARSHFIELD. 
Under a license of the Probate Court, the 
executors of the late Hon. Daniel Webster, 
offered for sale at public auction, on Wednes¬ 
day, the Marshfield estate of the deceased 
statesman, and the remaining portion of the 
excellent farm stock upon it. It is gratifying 
to know, as the result, that “ Marshfield” is 
still to be retained, according to his expressed 
wishes, in his own family. The sale was 
attended by a large number of persons. The 
real estate was divided into eleven lots, each 
of which was sold separately. The first 
ten, comprising the old “ Winslow House,” 
the grist-mill, the “ Island Farm,” &c., were 
taken by various purchasers. Respecting 
the disposition of the eleventh lot, the cor¬ 
respondent of the Boston Journal says : 
Lot No. 11 on the catalogue, was “ all the 
right, title and interest of Mr. Webster in 
and to the Mansion House, outbuildings and 
land immediately adjoining the same.” The 
land amounted to 340 acres. The lot in¬ 
cludes, if we are correctly informed, the 
original purchase of Mr. Webster at Marsh¬ 
field. It is the original “ Marshfield lot ”— 
the other lots which were sold being those 
which Mr. Webster added to his estate by 
subsequent purchases. The first purchase 
was made by Mr. Webster in 1835. There 
is a mortgage on the estate of $3,000 or 
$4,000, and a marriage settlement in favor 
of Mrs. Webster, which continues during 
her life-time. The executors, in offering 
the property, did not warrant any title or 
interest to the property. Whatever the 
right and title might be after Mrs. Webster’s 
decease, and to determine which, it would be 
necessary to have a legal decision through a 
suit at equity, was offered for sale in order 
to close the estate and give a clear title to 
the estate. Mr. J. W. Paige was the pur¬ 
chaser, at $200. This disposition of the 
right will give to Mr. Webster’s family the 
clear and full title to “ Marshfield,” and se¬ 
cure the fulfillment of the earnest desire of 
Mr. Webster, as expressed in his will—“My 
greatest and leading wish is to preserve 
Marshfield, if I can, in the blood and name 
of my family.” 
As a general thing, the live stock brought 
good prices. 
A full-blood Alderney heifer, three years 
old, with calf, sold for $155 ; her twin mate, 
not with calf, for $70; two full-blood Ayr¬ 
shire heifers, (twins), three years old, sold 
for $50 each ; a full-blood Ayrshire heifer 
calf, a very fine animal, one year old, sold 
for $37 50, and a half-blood, of same age, 
for $33; a half-blood Hungarian heifer, two 
years old, sold for $24 ; two half-blood Devon 
heifers sold at $36 and $33 ; a three-year old 
half-blood Devon heifer, with a calf by the 
full-blood Alderney bull, sold for $49; a 
full-blood Alderney bull, thee years old, sold 
for $76; another of the same breed, full- 
blood, one year old, from the Motley stock, 
sold for $51 ; a two-year old Devon bull 
brought $88 : a two-year old Hungarian bull 
$26 ; a full-blood Ayrshire bull calf, a year 
old, from the stock of James Brown, sold 
for $35. 
The working oxen sold at good prices. 
They were half-blood Devons, and splendid 
animals to look upon. One pair, 8 years old, 
sold for $155 ; one pair 6 years old, $182 50; 
one pair 5 years old, $175 ; two pairs 3 years 
old, $115 and $85—the latter not “broken.” 
The Cheviot sheep sold for from $4 50 to 
$12 each. The South Downs sold for from 
$3 12 to $8 50. 
A large portion of this stock, and espe¬ 
cially the best animals, were purchased by 
gentlemen in different parts of the State, who 
are interested in improving their farm stock. 
They will be distributed chiefly in Norfolk, 
Bristol and Essex counties. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
WATERLOO CORRESPONDENCE. 
Vous avez beau, as the French say, in pub¬ 
lishing a long article on hop growing, at a 
time when the sale of hop beer “ is present 
death in Mantua.” 
I like your horticultural leader, a notice of 
Hovey’s March number. All that is said 
about deep trenching is true, and indispensa¬ 
ble to him whose acres are at the minimum ; 
but to the farmer it may not always pay, as 
draining and plowing in manure deeply is a 
substitute, though not an equivalent; as you 
say, “ deep tillage turns the drouth to good 
account, doing away the necessity of irriga¬ 
tion, and aiding the good effects of mulch¬ 
ing.” But where is that trenching spade to 
be found that works twenty inches deep ? 
I wish you would copy Wilson Flagg’s 
article on “ illusive distances and magni¬ 
tude.” If it is too artistic, nature will gain 
in the contrast; David Thomas says, “ never 
train ornamental trees lest you spoil nature’s 
fair proportions.” The grove in front of his 
mansion was as wild and unshorn, as the 
trees and shrubbery of the tangled glen ; 
what painter can improve upon natare when 
she runs wild. You say truly, “ we need 
not go to England to study and learn the 
work we have to do, for nature, who is the 
only correct teacher, is here before us, un¬ 
despoiled by the vagaries of ostentatious im¬ 
provers.” My whole life has been spent in 
those mercantile delusions, which shut out 
the truths of nature, too late to be improved, 
until the loss can only be felt! How true 
it is that the commercial farmer lays in ruins 
with remorseless sacrilege every object that 
would delight the heart of a true lover of 
nature, and then points exultingly to his bald 
hills and plains, as if their denudings were 
proofs of his civilization. 
The article from Tompkins Co., on the lo¬ 
cust borer, is rather long, besides the experi¬ 
ment, is not yet a fait accompli. I have had 
locusts (Robinea pseud acacia) grown in a 
rich soil large enough for posts, before the 
borer assailed them; if only the branches 
are attacked, cut them off, and the trunk will 
grow to the saw-log size, as I can show. 
Let no farmer who will need posts for fences, 
neglect to set locust trees, at least by the 
road-side of his farm; when one fails, plant 
another. The borer has never appeared but 
once in this region to any injurious extent. 
You say “ lookout for the golden stream,” 
Why can’t that matchless reformer of urban 
evils, Fernando Wood, order a few thousand 
tubs of ta feu mixed with the nitrogenless 
street-sweepings, after they are dumped on 
the piers, ready to be shipped to the starved 
soils of the coast and islands of New-York. 
How can your Babylon hope to live forever 
and ever, in violation of nature’s laws for 
reproduction. Why not employ those poor 
ones who seek labor to give them bread, in 
the laudable occupation of saving and dis¬ 
tributing the elements by which alone bread 
can be made. 
I have set out some wild high blackberry 
bushes to find out how far the Ne w-Rochelles 
are overrated. At Aurora, the Catawba 
grape, under good culture and the lake influ¬ 
ence, does well in warm dry seasons ; but I 
am satisfied that the Isabella is the grape for 
our climate. How does it compare with the 
the Concord grape 1 
Our peach trees appear to be done for, 
