168 
AMERICAN AGRICXJLTURIS1 
The Back Volumes of the American Agriculturist, 
neatly bound, can now be supplied from the commence¬ 
ment. These of themselves constitute a beautiful and 
valuable Farmer’s Library, embracing a compendium 
ol all the important agricultural articles that have ap- 
peareed during the last thirteen years. First ten volumes, 
new edition, furnished bound for $10. 
Bound volumes XI, XII and XIII (new' series), $1 50 per 
volume; unbound, $1 per volume. The whole thirteen 
volumes furnished bound for $14 50. 
Sierra 
Mew-¥ork, Thursday, May 24. 
ggS* This paper is never sent where it is 
not considered paid for—and is in all cases 
stopped when the subscription runs out. 
We occasionally send a number to persons 
who are not subscribers. This is sometimes 
done as a compliment, and in other cases to 
invite examination. Those receiving such 
numbers are requested to look them over, and 
if convenient show them to a neighbor. 
USE MOWING AND REAPING MACHINES. 
The time has arrived when farmers should 
buy and use these immensely labor-saving 
machines, provided they can procure such 
as will work satisfactorily. The exorbitant 
prices of all agricultural products through¬ 
out the United States, calls emphatically for 
the adoption of two important rules. 
1st. To cultivate and save every article that 
can be profitably raised on the farm ; and 
2d. To economise labor by the use of every 
machine that can be adopted to advantage. 
The use of harvesting machines, including 
the horse-rake, horse-pitchfork, horse-power 
and threshing-machines, as well as mowers 
and reapers, have these peculiar and greatly 
additional claims upon the farmer, viz : that 
they are required at a season when labor 
commands the highest wages, and is the 
most difficult to be procured ; and the crops 
to be harvested must be secured at just the 
time they are ready to be cut, or they may 
be greatly injured or totally lost by delay. 
This is a work that admits of no postpone¬ 
ment. Unlike most mechanical and much 
other agricultural work, it can not be defer¬ 
red for a week or a fortnight, and sometimes 
the delay of a day or two works irreparable 
injury, by deferring the cutting and secur¬ 
ing in favorable weather, which, if omitted, 
may carry it into a period of protracted rain 
that may spoil a crop. We have been in¬ 
formed by intelligent southern farmers, that 
the introduction of the reaping machine has 
enabled them to raise wheat, oats and barley 
where they could not before be cultivated, 
inasmuch as they could not command the 
amount of labor at the period required to 
harvest them by the old methods ; whereas 
they can now put their machine into the 
fields, and with one man do the same work 
which, without it, would require the labor 
of six to eight men. 
We do not advocate the indiscriminate 
purchase of machines, but to use the best 
judgment in selecting such as are well made, 
and on the best principles of construction. It 
is a feasible thing for any half dozen men to 
combine and get a machine for early trial, 
and if found to be successful, then engage at 
once whatever may be required for a neigh¬ 
borhood. Every machine is capable of earn¬ 
ing several times its cost in a single sea¬ 
son, if it works well and is kept in constant 
use. 
Many have been hitherto deterred from 
procuring machines, from apprehension that 
they will not work. But there is no longer 
serious grounds for objecting, as they are to 
be found now capable of doing their work in 
the most satisfactory manner. 
RAY GRASS. 
The editor of the Progressive Farmer is 
somewhat facetious upon our “ important 
discoveries ” in the nomenclature of this 
valuable grass ; but we beg leave with all 
due humility to inform him, that it is no 
“discovery” at all on our part—the “honor” 
belongs to every English and Scotch farmer 
we ever conversed with upon this subject. 
With them rye grass and ray grass are quite 
different things; so also are they with our 
London seedsman, from whom we have an¬ 
nually received it for the past ten years. 
He invariably calls it in his bills, “ ray 
grassand when we order “ rye grass ” 
from him, as we have occasionally done, 
we get an entirely different article from w’hat 
is popularly known as “ ray grass.” 
Ray grass has been cultivated with suc¬ 
cess in the neighborhood of the cityofNew- 
York for about fifteen years, and it is not 
known by our farmers, or by the Scotch and 
English who have settled here, by any other 
name. When we wrote about it, therefore, 
we did not go to our books like our learned 
cotemporary for a name, but called it as it is 
popularly known by the practical farmers 
with whom we have conversed on this sub¬ 
ject in the United States and Great Britain. 
A few years ago, a little work was pub¬ 
lished in England, on the grasses, whi&h 
was sent to us from London. Upon look- 
into our library as we write this article, to 
refer to, we can not find it, nor have we 
been able to procure a copy in this city. 
If we recollect rightly, ray grass and rye 
grass, annual, biennial, and perennial of the 
latter, were there distinctly figured and 
described as four different sorts, but can not 
positively say that it was so. 
Be this as it may, as soon as ripe, we will 
forward our cotemporary a branch of this 
ray grass with its roots, stalks, leaves, seeds, 
complete for inspection ; he will then be able 
to say whether it is identical with the rye 
grass. In return, we shall feel obliged if he 
will forward us ripe specimens of the differ¬ 
ent kinds of “ rye grass ” found in his 
neighborhood, and particularly designate 
that cultivated by Dr. Uhler and Mr.Rey- 
bold. If these gentlemen have been more 
successful than the writer in the culti¬ 
vation of rye grass, we think it must be a 
different variety than the kind we have 
grown under that name; and it will afford 
us great pleasure to introduce it into cul¬ 
tivation among the farmers of this neigh¬ 
borhood. We are extremely anxious to 
multiply good varieties of grasses, and for 
any valuable new sort which can be added 
to our list we shall feel deeply grateful. 
©tu* itltucellcmeous Ulrauicr. 
Black Knot. —This scourge of the plum- 
tree may be cured by paring the knot clean 
to the wood, and making a thorough appli¬ 
cation of spirits of turpentine. So says E. 
A. Porter, in the N. E. Farmer. We know 
some trees that would require considerable 
“ paring ” if this prescription be followed. 
Cleaning Out a Hen’s Crop—Fowl Sur¬ 
gery. —In the same paper, John Fiske says 
he had several poor biddies that seemed to 
have a stoppage in the crop, so that food re¬ 
mained there till it swelled so as to be a 
burden, and finally resulted in death. He 
took one of these fowls,laid it upon its back, 
and while his son held its head and legs, he 
cut the skin crosswise, in the shape of an X, 
and with a crooked wire hooked out the con¬ 
tents, consisting of grass and grain which 
had become a decaying disagreeable mass. 
He next washed out the crop well with cold 
water; sewed up the slit with a strong 
thread, and set biddie upon her feet, when 
she went off singing her thankful song. In 
a few days the wound was entirely healed 
and egg-laying was commenced again. 
Profit of Underdraining. —Mr. William 
Chamberlain, of Lower Red Hook, N. Y., 
drained twenty-five acres of land, at an ex¬ 
pense of $60 per acre, and the first three 
crops paid the whole expense, including cost 
of cultivation. He may, then, hereafter look 
for a profit of $20 per acre on each crop. 
Last season part of this ground yielded 75 
bushels of corn, and a part 300 bushels of 
potatoes, while on adjacent undrained fields 
the crops were nearly ruined by the drouth. 
Grafting. —In grafting always take care 
to have some portion of the bark on the scion 
meet the bark of the stock. The sap as¬ 
cends through the wood and descends through 
the bark; hence the necessity of this pre¬ 
caution, if an immediate circulation of sap 
between the old wood and scion, and conse¬ 
quent growth of the latter, is looked for. 
Sunflower Seeds for Fowls.. —We will 
be obliged to any who have given a long and 
thorough trial of sunflower seeds for fowls, 
if they will report the results through the 
columns of the American Agriculturist. 
Cobs and Wire-worhis. —Some of our co¬ 
temporaries have recommended putting corn 
cobs in the hill with seed corn to prevent the 
ravages of the wire-worm. The recommen¬ 
dation has little plausibility. F. Powell states 
in the Rural New-Yorker, that he gave the 
plan a thorough trial upon part of a field of 
corn, and found no observable benefit. 
Pigish. —Liebig says an adult pig, weigh¬ 
ing 125 pounds, may consume 5,110 pounds 
of potatoes during a year (14 pounds a day) 
without increasing its weight a single ounce. 
. - 
Raising Pickled Cucumbers. —“ It is said” 
that a man in Louisiana waters his cucum¬ 
ber vines with vinegar, and they produce ex¬ 
cellent ready-made pickles. This is on a 
