AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
No hemming is required, as the wax and 
oil will keep the edges sufficiently firm. 
I don’t think I am extravagant in saying 
they will pay the cost in one season, and will 
last ten years if taken good care of. Within 
a few days we have had one entire rainy day 
when my neighbor’s hay was thoroughly 
soaked, while mine was as safely covered as 
if it had been packed away in the barn. My 
manager thinks that one-third of the cost of 
some new covers, just made, were paid for 
on that day. 
Large covers, made in the same manner, 
to cover the whole of a load of hay, with 
heavier weights of course, would be an ad¬ 
mirable protection against sudden showers, 
but as I have not often made hay at a dis¬ 
tance from home, I have never required 
them. Edward Clarke. 
Sowing Thick and Thin. —Since turning 
our attention to the growth of corn, though 
but tyros in this branch of agriculture, care¬ 
ful investigations have proved to us that from 
an extravagant full seeding of 2 bushels per 
acre of wheat, or 3 bushels per acre of bar¬ 
ley and oats, some of the seeds do, and must 
by reason of its extreme thickness, and as a 
necessary consequence, fail to produce any 
ears or ear at all, and only one, two, and three 
diminutive ears are or can be possibly ob¬ 
tained from each grain, averaging only about 
two abortive or puny ears, and containing in 
both not 30 perfect grains. This need not 
cause great astonishment nor disbelief, and 
we speak it without fear of contradiction ; 
for if it were so, 60 bushels per acre produce 
of wheat and 90 bushels per acre of barley 
and oats, would of course consequently be 
often realized, viz., 30 times as much as was 
sown, which at first sight appears but little ; 
but where is even this insignificant produce 
obtained from such proceedings'? A corre¬ 
spondent on whom we can rely upon for 
truth, writes us from Inverness, “ The prac¬ 
tice of thin sowing has not come this way 
yet, grain being generally sown about 6 bush¬ 
els to the acre !” How is this inadvertence 
to be accounted for—can it be in the differ¬ 
ence of a Scotch acre, or the Scotch bushel ? 
We contend that our growing crops from only 
6 or 8 pints per statute acre, with some 20 to 
80 fine ears protruding from each grain or 
stub, hang dangling and wafting majestically 
in the summer’s breeze as noble examples 
for larger establishments, can not be beaten 
by anybody’s else, or anywhere, except from 
a smaller quantity of seed even than this.— 
Hardy & Son, in Agricultural Gazette. 
Grasses for Reclaiming Sand Drifts on 
the Sea Shores. —There has been received 
in the Patent Office, from Holland, the seeds 
of the sea reed, ( arundo arenaria ,) and the 
upright sea lyme grass, ( elymus arenarius,) 
which have long been used in that country 
for reclaiming the sand drifts on the sea 
coast. These seeds have been imported for 
experiment all along the Atlantic coast, from 
Maine to Florida. The nutritive matter of 
these grasses is not sufficient to make them 
worthy of cultivation out of the influence of 
the salt spray. The elymus arenarius rather 
exceeds the sea reed in nutritive qualities ; 
but from the habit of the latter in its natural 
place of growth, it is of greater utility, par¬ 
ticularly when combined with the former, as 
it binds the loose sands of the sea shore, and 
thereby raises a durable natural barrier 
against the encroachments of the ocean 
upon the land. Indeed, the effect of the two 
grasses combined in protecting coasts from 
the wasting influences of storms and currents 
is such, that Holland owes her very exist¬ 
ence, in a considerable degree, to their pre¬ 
serving influences. 
In the reign of George I., the acts passed 
for the planting and preserving the same from 
injury were extended to the coasts of Eng¬ 
land. In passing further penalties for its in¬ 
violability, it was rendered penal not only 
for an individual—not even excepting the 
lord of the manor—to cut the bent, but for 
any one to be in possession of any within 
eight miles of the coast. This plant is also 
applied to many economical purposes—hats, 
ropes, mats, &c., being manufactured from 
it.— Scientific American. 
Raising Wood. —I have tried a good many 
years to raise oaks, chestnuts and other 
kinds of trees, but met with no success, 
planting them as I did in drills, in common 
soil. Not one would sprout. In the sum¬ 
mer of 1853, I noticed several sprouts as I 
was working under a chestnut tree, and in 
digging down through the leaves I came to 
the nuts from which the sprouts came. I 
took the hint, and the next fall I procured a 
quantity of nuts, thinking 1 would imitate 
nature; I prepared a rich bed, strewing the 
nuts thickly on top of the soil, covering them 
with leaves. All the nuts came up and are 
now doing finely. This manner of planting 
is only to be observed for those trees that 
are designed for transplanting. For wood 
lots I would recommend the following mode 
of planting. Select a still day. Let one 
man drop the seed eight feet apart each way, 
covering them with a small handful of leaves. 
Let another man follow with a barrow of 
heavy soil, sprinkling on just enough to keep 
the leaves from blowing away . Two men in 
this manner can plant one acre in one day 
with ease.— Boston Cultivator. 
The Tamarind in Virginia. —Wm. M. Sin¬ 
gleton, Esq., of Winchester, communicates 
the following to the Commissioner of 
Patents : 
“ Of all the ornamental trees propagated 
among us, either foreign or native, there is 
none, in my judgment, more desirable than 
the tamarind. Its growth is rapid, its form 
symmetrical, its foliage beautifully delicate, 
and it is altogether highly ornamental; be¬ 
sides, it is perfectly free from blight, as well 
as from the depredations of insects. If cul¬ 
tivated on our Western prairies, it would 
doubtless form a valuable acquisition. 
“ From the growth of some tamarind seeds, 
which I obtained at a confectioner’s shop 
some eight years since, I have a tree stand¬ 
ing in my yard, eighteen inches in circum¬ 
ference. The past season it perfected its 
fruit, which, in quality, was equally as good 
as that imported. The seed may be sown in 
drills, about four inches apart, and covered 
from two to three inches deep, with light, 
rich soil. They may be sown either in the 
fall or spring, 'if in the latter, they should 
be exposed to the weather during the win¬ 
ter previous, in order that their hull or cov¬ 
erings may be acted on by the frost. When 
grown to ahight of three or four feet, the 
young trees may be transplanted in the sites 
where they are permanently to remain.” 
Mowing Machines, though saving much 
labor, seem to do much personal damage. A 
man in Burlington County, one in Morris, 
and one in Monmouth, while engaged with 
them last week, had each some of their limbs 
cut off, maiming them for life.— Exchange. 
This is another evidence of the truth of 
Scriptures, that “all flesh is as grass.”— New 
Brunswick Frcdonia. 
And it also proves that because locomot¬ 
ives do sometimes mercilessly crush sheep 
who get on the track, the locomotives ought 
to be abolished. Eh? But there are some 
machines made with the gearing completely 
covered, which obviates all danger in riding. 
CUTTING GRAIN. 
Mr. Editor : In harvesting grain of all 
kinds I am convinced from my own observa¬ 
tion and experience, that we do not com¬ 
mence early enough. Grain that stands un¬ 
til it is dead ripe—especially wheat—makes 
darker flour than that which is cut in the 
milk, or about the time the kernels begin to 
glaze. Last year, in order satisfactorily 
to test the correctness of this position, I cut 
one half of a piece of wheat, just at the time 
'he grain was beginning to harden, and al¬ 
lowed the remainder of the piece to stand 
till it had matured. The grain cut in the 
milk was bound in small bundles, and shock¬ 
ed on grass land, where it remained for a 
fortnight, being protected from rain and 
heavy dews, by caps, but exposed to the sun 
by removing them during the day time when 
the weather was clear and fair. Both par¬ 
cels were threshed separately, and weighed, 
and the first cut was found to be in every re¬ 
spect superior to the last; the kernels were 
finer in the sample, more plump and farina¬ 
ceous, the skin thinner, and whiter, and the 
general appearance so different that, when 
placed beside the other, it did not look like 
the same variety of wheat. 
A like experiment on oats resulted in a 
similar way, and I am confidently persuaded 
that early cutting will be found in every re¬ 
spect preferable to late cutting. Another 
and by no means unimportant consideration, 
is the superiority of the straw for fodder. 
Grain staw that stands until it is perfectly 
‘dead ripe,’ contains but little nutriment; all 
the saccharine juices ar abstracted, and little 
except the fiberous substance of the plant 
remains, but when it is cut early, and prop¬ 
erly cured, there is nearly as much aliment¬ 
ary matter in it, as in hay. Oat straw is 
generally regarded—and with justice—as of 
much greater value for feeding purposes, than 
straw of wheat, barley or rye. Early cut¬ 
ting, with reference to this grain, is therefore 
of much more consequence, so far as the 
straw is concerned, than it is in the case of 
either of the varieties. But in all cases, the 
practice posesses a decided advantage over 
the old method. 
Any person who is at all skeptical on this 
point,"' can with a very little difficulty satisfy 
himself of its correctness; he has but to 
make the experiment. The straw of my 
wheat, that which was first cut, was all con-> 
sumed by my cows, while that which was 
left till ripe, was rejected.—A Franconia 
Farmer. —Farmer and Visitor. 
Wheat and Chess. —Wheat and chess 
sometimes become so entangled and united 
as to lead people to suppose that both grow 
on one stalk. A case in point. On Monday 
last, Geo. Wright, Esq., of Irondequoit, 
brought us a head of wheat, (carefully in¬ 
closed in a paste-board box for preservation,) 
having on one side a small branch of genu¬ 
ine chess. The chess protruded from the 
stalk between the wheat kernels, and certain¬ 
ly had the appearance of having grown there. 
Mr. W. stated that the apparent anomaly had 
been shown to several farmers and others, 
(including one or two city editors,) who ad¬ 
mitted that the wheat and chess must have 
grown on the same stalk. At first sight, we 
confess that we were a little surprised, the 
whole thing looked so natural—as though 
the wheat and chess actually grew together. 
But in less than two minutes we “disclosed 
the disclosure.” On slightly separating the 
kernels of wheat on the opposite side of the 
stem, we discovered the end of the chess 
stem, protruding from the head of the wheat 
(in an opposite direction from the chess 
kernels,) but not united with the wheat 
stalk! The chess stem was held between 
the stem and kernel of the wheat—and it 
