AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
227 
speculator or monopolizer—they were 
brought here for the use of persons with 
families, and not for gentlemen of your ilk.” 
For the American Agriculturist. 
DISH-WASHING-HOW TO FIND A SAVING WIFE 
“ Dish-washing,” by Minnie Myrtle, which 
appeared some weeks since, is a subject in¬ 
teresting to every family in our civilized 
country, where dish-washing goes on at least 
three times every day, from one year’s end 
to another, with perhaps a few exceptions— 
as in case of “ old bachelors,” who are said 
to pack them away in the closet until next 
meal ! just giving them a “ dry wash.” No 
fertile brain in New-England, or any where 
else, has yet invented a “dish-washer at 
least I could find no model of one in the 
Patent Office at Washington, and so we must 
go on the old way, washing by hand. 
Minnie Myrtle begins altogether right. 
First the glasses, spoons and forks, and other 
silver, should be washed and rinsed, and 
nicely wiped on tea-cup towels ; then have 
two tubs with clean, soft water, a perfectly 
clean dish-cloth in the rinsing water, and if 
you have no “ draining box,” do not wait for 
the carpenter to make one, but just get a 
large-sized raisin-box, knock out the bottom, 
and nail five or six laths lengthwise, using 
the lath-nails, as they will not cause them to 
split. Set the box on a sink, or waiter, to 
catch the water that drains off. When the 
plates are hastily passed through the hot 
water, after passing the clean cloth, or swab, 
over every one, place them in the box, let¬ 
ting them lean a little, and lapping over one 
another in the box until it is full. Take 
them out—they need no wiping; set them 
aside, and fill the box again, and soon all will 
be done. 
Minnie never puts her knife-handles in 
the water; it ruins them. So it does. Just 
wash them, and wipe on a clean dish-cloth 
wrung out of hot water. She “ hates brick- 
dust ” to clean knives. Then let her take a 
little anthracite coal-ashes, wet a small bit 
of coarse linen, rub off the black spots, and 
then polish with dry ashes. 
I agree with her about the milk-pails and 
pans, to be used for nothing else ; and as to 
the bread-tray, we take an iron spoon and 
scrape off all that sticks fast before we finish 
kneading the bread, which is soon done, and 
prevents waste. To impress the minds of 
the girls I have “ brought up,” with the sin 
and folly of wasting, I tell them the story of 
the young man that wanted to marry a wife 
who would help him along in the world: 
The first house he went to, the man offer¬ 
ed to have the stranger’s horse put in the 
stable, but he declined, saying he had “ a 
queer horse, that would not eat any thing 
but the scrapings of the dough-trough.” One 
of the girls said he could have plenty of that; 
and soon got him a bucketful. That was 
enough for him—she would not do. He 
went to another house, and said the same 
about the feed ; but the young lady said his 
horse would have to do without the scrap¬ 
ings, as she never left any to waste. Here 
he let the farmer put up his horse and gave 
him oats. He found a saving wife. 
Crops in Ulster County, N. Y.—Rev. W. 
S. Moore of this County writes, under date 
of June 12 : 
“ The weather with us is very cool, and 
the ground is completely saturated by the 
late frequent and very copious rains. Since 
the rains, winter grain has improved won- 
fully. Early in the season the prospect for 
winter grain was very bad in this region. 
Indeed not a few pieces were hopelessly in¬ 
jured by the winter. Where this was not 
the case, there is now the promise of a fair 
crop. Grass remains short and backward, 
and I feift that the hay crop will be defect¬ 
ive. Oats are doing well. An unusual 
quantity of corn has been planted, but dur¬ 
ing the present cold and wet weather it is 
making little progress. Peach blossoms 
were generally killed in this section, but all 
other kinds of fruit promise well at the pres¬ 
ent time.” 
I am now at school, at the Nevv-Castle 
Institute, a very good school, by the way, 
and I will tell you a little of the crops here¬ 
abouts. 
From the present prospects, there will be 
large crops of both corn and wheat this sea¬ 
son, for the late rains have placed wheat 
out of danger of a drouth. I hear a good 
many complaints of the fly, in our State, in 
wheat, and worms in corn; soon after the 
latter was planted it became very dry, and 
the cut-worms laid whole fields in ruin, and 
many were planted over. 
Oats look well all over this part of the 
country, as far as I have seen or heard, and 
if we continue to have such copious showers, 
we will have large crops. 
I hope that our brightest anticipations of 
an abundant harvest may be realized, for al¬ 
most everything eatable is, or has been for 
months, extremely high. It need hardly be 
supposed that grain will go down to the old 
prices, until the termination of the war in 
Europe, and as the conflict is becoming eve¬ 
ry day more complicated, there are still en¬ 
couraging prospects for the farmer, and 
every one should endeavor to put every 
acre of land into something. Any thing will 
pay in these times, when there are almost 
starvation prices. The demand must be 
supplied, and all depend upon the tillers of 
the soil. The fate of many depends upon 
the coming crops. I trust that the next 
winter will not find so many suffering fami¬ 
lies as there were last, and hope ample pro¬ 
vision will be made by the laborer for any 
thing that may turn up, and make hay while 
the sun shines. 
A DELAWARE FARMERS’ SON. 
MISSOURI CHALLENGES THE UNITED STATES. 
A MAMMOTH FARM. 
The undersigned, believing that their farm, 
situated seven miles south of St. Louis, Mo., 
is unequaled, in point of variety, production 
and extent by any other in the United States, 
(though it has been in cultivation less than 
ten years,) challenge the whole Union to a 
competition for a grand Sweep Stake Pre¬ 
mium on the following conditions : 
Each person competing shall deposit Five 
Hundred Dollars, to be used as hereinafter 
specified. 
Entries of farms to be made prior to Au¬ 
gust 1st, 1855. 
A Committee to consist of one person from 
each State in whrh any farm or farms shall 
be entered shall be selected by the Gover¬ 
nor of the respective States represented, 
whose duty, when so selected and notified 
by the Governor, shall be to proceed and vis¬ 
it each farm so entered during the months of 
September and October, and award the pre¬ 
mium to the owner of the farm which shall 
excel in these particulars, viz : 
Variety of Production; 
Amount of Production ; and 
Extent of Surface Cultivated. 
The premium shall consist of a service of 
plate, to be purchased with the money de¬ 
posited by all the competitors after the ex¬ 
penses of the committee have been paid. 
We are anxious to let the world know 
what has been, and what can be done west 
of the Mississippi River, and make this offer 
in good faith, and with a full determination 
to carry it out. 
All necessary preliminary arrangements 
will be made in a liberal manner. Who will 
enter the list ? Communications with refer¬ 
ence to the above may be made directly to 
us at St. Louis, or to E. Abbott, Esq., Editor 
of the Valley Farmer, St Louis, Mo. 
Pledging ourselves that all such shall meet 
with prompt and respectful attention. 
JOHN SIGERSON & BROTHER. 
St. Louis, Mo., June 1, 1855. 
Of the above farm we give the following 
particulars from the Valley Farmer: 
The Sigerson farm is situated south of the 
river De Peres, in what is known as the 
Carondelet Common Fields, and consists of 
one thousand acres, all under fence and 
nearly all in cultivation. When the com¬ 
mencement was made there, about ten years 
ago, the whole tract was covered with a 
stout growth of black jack, hickory, hazle, 
&c. The Gravois runs through the entire 
tract, diagonally from south-east to north¬ 
west, affording abundance of water for stock. 
The ground is quite undulating and on it are 
found numerous sink holes, through which 
the water drains off by subterranean pas¬ 
sages in the limestone ledge which underlies 
the whole section into the Mississippi river. 
The soil is a rich sandy loam, very deep, 
upon a clay sub-soil, and on being worked 
becomes very friable and is easily pulverized. 
It is admirably adapted to the growth of fruit 
and also, corn, wheat, potatoes—in fact 
everything cultivated in this region. 
They have now an apple and peach or¬ 
chard in bearing of over 1G0 acres, embrac¬ 
ing some 40,000 trees ; they have 5,000 pear- 
trees in bearing, besides nectarines apricots, 
cherries, plums, quinces, &c., in great num¬ 
bers. They have 200 acres of meadow, 60 
acres of wheat, the finest we have seen this 
season ; 60 acres of oats ; 100 acres devoted 
to the nursery, in which they have this year 
planted about five bushels of apple seeds, 
and thirty bushels of peach stones ; they 
have in it 50,000 budded peach trees, which 
will be ready for sale this fall; a larger 
quantity of apples; 300,000 grape cuttings; 
30,000 evergreens, besides large quantities of 
quinces, pears, &c., as well as ornamental 
and shade trees, roses, dahlias, and every va¬ 
riety of hardy and exotic flower and shrub. 
They have twenty-five acres of strawberries, 
from which they have daily gathered from 
one to two hundred gallons of fruit for two 
weeks past. 
Besides supplying a large amount of fruit 
for the St. Louis market, the Messrs. Siger¬ 
son are intending this year to send large 
quantities to Chicago, Millwaukie, Galena, 
and other cities north of us. By our rail¬ 
road facilities this can now be accomplished 
so as to contribute vastly to the comfort of 
our northern neighbors and be a source of 
profit to the enterprizing men engaged in it. 
They expect to have from twenty to thirty 
thousand bushels of peaches to dispose of 
this season. 
The force employed to carry on this vast 
concern, varies according to the season, 
from thirty to fifty men. They have resid¬ 
ing on their place about eight men who have 
families, to whom they furnish a comforta¬ 
ble home, a garden plat, fire wood, pasturage 
for a cow, and pay them twenty dollars per . 
month, the men boarding themselves. Sin¬ 
gle men are boarded by the proprietors and 
paid from twelve to fifteen dollars per month. 
We were much interested in the appear- 
For the American Agriculturist, 
CROPS IN WESTCHESTER, PA. 
A boy's letter. 
