AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
855 
not use the cow to a long stripping, or an 
after stripping.— Northern Farmer. 
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MRS. STRONG ATH A M’S CHURN. 
Speaking of churns, we have never seen 
any other labor-saving contrivance in that 
department, that for practical convenience 
and utility could compare with that of Mrs. 
Strongatham, a notable English housewife 
whose acquaintance we had the pleasure 
of making in one of the rural districts of 
New-York some years since. Having occa¬ 
sion to call upon her one summer morning, 
we found her occupying her huge chintz 
covered rocking chair, rocking and knitting 
as though the salvation of the family depended 
upon the assiduity with which she applied 
herself to these occupations. Not that she 
was uncivil or unsociable by any means, for 
the moment we had taken the proffered chair 
she set in with a steady stream of talk that 
was as instructive as it was entertaining, for 
besides her admirable qualities as a house¬ 
wife the lady possessed rare conversational 
powers. 
During our call she directed one of her 
daughters to some duty in a distant part of 
the house, adding, “ I would attend to it my¬ 
self, but I must fetch this butter.” Now, 
we had known something of the process of 
“ fetching butter ” in our early days, and the 
idea of a snow-white churn and an irksome 
expenditure of elbow grease was as natural¬ 
ly associated with it in our mind, as was the 
compensatory slice of new bread and butter 
after the achievement of the victory. We 
therefore cast our eyes about us involuntari¬ 
ly for these indications, but we looked in vain. 
Of either churn or churning there was no 
more appearance than might have been seen 
in Queen Victoria’s drawing-room any day 
in the week. Our curiosity was excited, and 
we resolved to keep our eyes open, satisfied 
that if we did *' we should see what we should 
see.” And we did. During a momentary 
pause in the conversation the lady rose from 
her chair, removed the cushion, raised a sort 
of trap door underneath, and looked into the 
apparent vacuum with an earnestly inquiring 
eye. The secret was out. Under the seat 
in her rocking chair was a box in which she 
deposited the jar of cream, and the agitation 
produced by the vibratory motion of the chair 
converted the liquid into butter. 
By this arrangement the lady was enabled 
to kill, not two only, but four birds with the 
same stone. She could churn, knit, take her 
ease in her rocking-chair, and entertain her 
morning guests at the same time. And such 
butter as she made ! Yellow as gold, sweet 
as the meat of the cocoa nut, and as hard, 
too ; it always brought the highest price in 
the “ rural” market. You may brag of your 
patent churns if you will, but for novelty, 
economy, convenience and immaculate but¬ 
ter we defy them, one and all, when brought 
into competition with Mrs. Strongathain’s 
incomparable contrivance. Of her butter we 
shall retain a lively and grateful remem¬ 
brance to our dying day ; her churn we shall 
never forget either. 
Causes of Indigestion. —The annual ad¬ 
dress before the Massachusetts Medical So¬ 
ciety, this season, was delivered by Dr. 
Gould, of Boston, on the curative powers of 
nature, and the study of and cooperation 
with her processes, as the great secret of 
success in the practice of medicine. Among 
the principal causes of the diseases of the 
digestive organs, so common in this country, 
he noticed the almost exclusive American 
practice of giving to children the food appro¬ 
priate to adults, especially meats, for which 
their systems were not prepared. Thus their 
organs were prematurely excited and over¬ 
taxed, and the seeds of permanent derange¬ 
ment early planted. 
IMPROVING WORN OUT LANDS. 
An experiment, which has been tried by 
some enterprising gentlemen not far from 
this point, the present summer, establishes 
conclusively the value of deep plowing and 
the economy of good fertilizers; and it also 
shows that it is better for Connecticut men 
to go to work on the poor and “ worn out ” 
(1) fields which constitute so large a portion 
of the surface of their own State than to 
start for “ the west ” to farm it, where half 
the profits of their crops are absorbed in the 
expense of transportation to a market. 
These gentlemen have brought under culti¬ 
vation some thirty acres of land which had 
been abandoned as useless, it having been 
impoverished and drained of all vegetable 
principle by persistent cropping, years ago. 
Much of it was too poor to grow grass, pine 
trees being the only product, and none of it 
was better than the thinnest and poorest of 
all old pasture lots. This land, at prices 
ranging from $7 to $13 an acre, has been 
purchased and plowed with a subsoil plow — 
just such an instrument as some of our farm¬ 
ers in Connecticut need to have their skulls 
and ideas plowed up with a little till they can 
see the important truth that 2 and 2 make 4, 
and that right under the very farms which 
they have impoverished and are now work¬ 
ing to poor advantage to gain a bare subsist¬ 
ence, exist other farms which have never yet 
been touched by the plowshare, and whose 
capacities are waiting to be developed. A 
mere annual scratching over of the surface to 
a depth of ten or twelve inches will never 
develop them. The entire surface of these 
thirty-odd acres was plowed to the depth of 
two feet—and this on a light sandy “ worn- 
out” land. Then a plentiful use was made 
of guano and phosphates. The result is that 
on land hitherto supposed to be too poor for 
anything, there are acres of such potatoes, 
corn, and buckwheat, as can be found no¬ 
where else, not even in the Connecticut 
Valley! The potatoes were planted deep, 
in drills evenly plowed out by horse power, 
a superior method which saves space and 
greatly benefits the crop. Large and uni¬ 
formly good seed potatoes were selected for 
planting. The growing crop undoubtedly 
surpasses anything of the kind in the State. 
These potatoes will yield three or four hun¬ 
dred bushels to the acre. As Tristram 
Shandy says, “ A handsome moral might be 
picked out of this, if I had time to do itas 
it is, we leave the Connecticut farmers to 
pick it out themselves, with the assurance 
that it is worth their seeking.—C., in Hart¬ 
ford Times. 
French Economy in Living. —There can 
not be a doubt that the Americans are the 
most lavish and wasteful of any people in the 
world. An American eats in one day as 
much as would supply a European for two 
days. A frugal meal is his abhorrence. He 
must stuff daily. A correspondent of the 
Boston Telegraph shows that in Paris econo¬ 
my is so general that all classes live tem¬ 
perately and even abstemiously apparently— 
you see sculptors that the whole world come 
to admire, when it comes to the meal time 
take a small piece of bread and an apple out 
of their pocket, and this is their whole din¬ 
ner—and while they are eating it, they take 
from another pocket a cheap pamphlet edi¬ 
tion of some of their authors, and spread it 
out upon the knee to read—on such kinds of 
living as this, the French have, in a true 
sense, conquered the world. The most pa¬ 
tient, the most kind, the most frugal, the 
most sympathetic, the most industrious peo¬ 
ple in existence. But if their own honor or 
th'e honor of France is once satisfactorily to 
their minds, in implication—then look out 
for bombs, cannon, fire, lightning, tempests, 
torrents, anything, that expresses incontrol- 
able fury. 
THE HESSIAN ELY. 
According to a recently published account 
of Mr. Edward Tilghman, of Queen Ann Co., 
Maryland, says Mr. Glover, the eggs of the 
Hessian fly, ( cecidomyia destructor ,) very de¬ 
structive to wheat, are deposited in October, 
in the longitudinal cavities between the lit¬ 
tle ridges of the blade, from which, in about 
fifteen days, very small worms or maggots 
appear. It is properly a small two-winged 
gnat, which lays its eggs in winter or fall, 
when the grain has sprouted and begins to 
show leaves. They make way down the 
blades with considerable activity, until hid¬ 
den between them and the stems of the plant. 
The number on a single leaf is often twenty 
or thirty, and sometimes greater. The eggs 
are extremely minute, and of a pale red col¬ 
or ; and, if the weather prove favorable they 
will hatch in four days. The maggots, when 
they first come out of their shells, are also of 
a pale-red color. Forthwith they crawl 
down the leaves and work their way between 
them and the main stalk, passing downward 
till they come to a joint, just above which 
they remain, a little below the sarface of the 
ground, with the head towards the root of 
the plant. Having thus fixed themselves 
upon the stalk they become stationary, and 
never move from the place before their 
transformations are completed. They do 
not eat the stalk, nor do they penetrate with¬ 
in it, but lie lengthwise on its surface, and 
are wholly nourished by the sap. As they 
increase in size, and grow plump and firm, 
they become imbedded in the side of the 
stem by the pressure of their bodies upon the 
growing plant. One maggot thus placed 
seldom destroys the plant; but when two 
or three are fixed in this manner around the 
stem they weaken and improverish it, and 
cause it to fall down or wither and die. They 
usually come to their full size in five or six 
weeks, and then measure about three-twen¬ 
tieths of an inch in length. After escaping 
from the pupa state the body of the Hessian 
fly measures about the tenth of an inch in 
length; the head, antennae and thorax are 
black, the-bind body tawny, more or less 
widely marked with black on each wing, and 
clothed with fine grayish hairs. The legs 
are pale-red, or brownish, and the feet black. 
The maggots are generally transformed to 
flies in autumn. The Hessian fly is subject 
to the attacks of several parasitic insects, 
which serve more or less to lessen their 
numbers, the chief of which is ceraphron de¬ 
structor, of (say) a shining black four-winged 
fly, about one-tenth of an inch in length. 
Mr. Herrick recommends that the stouter 
varieties of wheat should be chosen, and the 
ground kept in good condition. If fall wheat 
is sown late, some of the eggs will be avoided; 
but the risk of winter killing will be incurred. 
Burning the stubble immediately after har¬ 
vest, and then plowing and harrowing the 
land is also highly recommended. Steeping 
the grain, and rolling it in air slaked lime or 
plaster, as promoting a rapid and vigorous 
growth, would also be beneficial.— Agricul¬ 
tural Division of the Patent Office. 
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How to Move a Sullen Ox.— “Did you 
never observe,” said a plain man, a friend of 
ours a few days since, as we were driving a 
dog out of the cow pen, to prevent his taking 
refuge behind us—as the cows look it by 
turns to chase him over the lot—“ did you 
never observe that a cow will never make 
friends with a dog 1” “Often.” “Well, the 
best w r ay you ever tried to make steers rise 
