90 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
Mow Much S*Sjis>ter I*er Acre?— 
We have given from one to two bushels per acre as the 
usual quantity. When plaster is cheap, and when the 
sowing costs more than the plaster, we would sow not 
less than two bushels, and when plaster is expensive, not 
more than one bushel. L, J. P. says the farmers in Sum¬ 
mit Co.. Ohio, sow only one bushel on three acres. It is 
their opinion, that while a larger quantity will produce a 
greater growth of clover for a few years, yet if continued 
the land gets poorer, and in process of time the plaster 
fails to have any beneficial effect. “One of the best 
farmers is the county says he would not sow any plaster 
at all. He puts manure on a clover sod and plows it un¬ 
der, and thinks this better than all the plaster he could 
buy—and it is a fact that he raises the best crops of 
wheat, corn, oats and barley of any farmer in the town¬ 
ship.” He would probably raise still better if he sowed 
a little plaster on his clover, ne gets good crops be¬ 
cause he is a good farmer, and works his land well, and 
makes and applies good manure, and not because he 
does not use plaster. The others fail, probably, to get the 
full benefit of the plaster, because they depend on it 
alone. They should use the plaster simply to get more 
clover, and then use this clover to make more manure. 
If the increased crops produced by the plaster are fed out 
on the farm, its employment will enrich rather than im¬ 
poverish the land. It is the abuse and not the use of 
plaster that is injurious. 
“The Practical Poultry Keeper.’’ 
BY LEWIS F. ALLEN. 
“ The Practical Poultry Keeper,” by L. 
Wright, Orange Judd & Co., New York, as its 
title imports, is truly a practical work. Com¬ 
pact, concise, yet sufficiently explanatory, it 
treats upon the most important items connected 
with poultry in general, from the egg through 
all the stages of progress in the bird, until its 
final destination to either the table or whatever 
other purpose it may be assigned. 
Whenever original composition is adopted, it 
is nicely written, or compilations are made from 
other authors, the matter is well selected. It is 
modern, too, in its arrangement; the current 
classification of breeds, with their individual 
characteristics, being well and accurately 
defined, so that the amateur, the fancier, 
and those who keep poultry simply as au item 
of domestic economy, need make no mistake in 
their selection, or be at a loss to know what 
they may obtain or breed. There have been 
many poultry hooks written, both in Europe 
and America. One ponderous in size, and ex¬ 
haustive in subject, like Tegetmeier’s, showy in 
binding, and too costly in price for the common 
reader; others of less assuming pretensions, 
hut good in their waj-, like Bemeut’s; still 
others, compilations chiefiy, bythose knowing 
little of the subjects of which they treated, and 
not leaving the reader much wiser, in a practical 
way, than when he started. Yet, some of the 
latter have proved useful in imparting primary 
instruction, and cultivating a taste for breeding 
and improving the various kinds of domestic 
fowls. The work under notice is a late English 
production, made up by the hand of a master; 
one well knowing what he was about, and valu¬ 
able throughout in its instructions. 
We have looked over the hook; read it, indeed, 
with considerable care, and, comparing it with 
a fifty years’ experience of our own in the poul¬ 
try line, it merits our decided approbation. We 
cheerfully recommend it as good authority for 
all those who think a hook of this character 
worth consulting at all. 
When a boy of seven or eight years, or there¬ 
abouts, we brought home our first pair or so of 
chickens, for which we had “dickered” with 
a neighboring school-fellow, whose parents had 
a yard full of them at home, and essayed our 
first venture in the poultry liue. Succeeding 
during the first season in rearing a thrifty prog- 
j eny from them, we added thereto in the duck 
and guinea-heu line; and as our boyhood grew, 
we found ourselves the proud owner of a popu¬ 
lous poultry-yard with many varieties. We 
lived in the country, of coarse, city boys sel¬ 
dom having the opportunity of keeping fowls. 
The ignorant louts of the neighborhood, who 
had nothing hut scraggy dung-liills at home, 
used to jeer us for our pains, hut we happily 
survived it. Our father going on business to 
New York, we besought him to buy a book 
which treated of poultry, that we might he in¬ 
structed in the science and skill of breeding and 
caring for them. We felt wofully disappointed 
on liis return, as we remember, to find that no 
such hook could he obtained. And such was 
the fact. He had searched high and low 
through all the hook-stores, and could get noth¬ 
ing of the kind. Indeed, wo had grown into 
stout, mature manhood, before the first poultry- 
hook greeted our eyes; and what a feast we 
had for a loug time over it! We are especially 
thankful to the many kind authors who, in this 
line, have become benefactors by improving 
tlieir knowledge and tastes in these matters. 
And with this modern poultry literature the 
taste for poultry cultivation has improved until 
it has become in fact one of the fine arts. Both 
men and women of mark and position have im¬ 
bibed a taste for our finer breeds of poultry 
that will never be eradicated, while each 
younger generation will follow in a recreation, 
if not a pursuit, fraught with so much interest 
and pleasure, as well as adding largely to the 
luxuries of the table aud household economy 
with all good livers. But we have written 
enough, and more than was intended when we 
sat down to notice the little work in hand. 
We heartily recommend it to the public as one 
of the best works on the subject we have seen. 
---—• -- 
Shallow Drains are better than None. 
While we are firm believers in the economy 
and the effectiveness of deep drains, even in 
heavy clay soils, we have seen enough to con¬ 
vince us that those who, from lack of means or 
time, or on account of an insufficient outlet, 
find deep draining impracticable, will still find 
it to tlieir material advantage to make shallow 
drains wherever the necessity for drainage is 
apparent. The first requirement of all is to 
get rid of the water that stands on the surface 
of the soil, for this brings absolute death to all 
vegetation. A simple plow furrow, to re¬ 
move the water that accumulates in a depres¬ 
sion of the surface, will often produce more 
beneficial effect than the same amount of labor 
applied in any other way. Next to surface 
water comes a sort of surface springiness, a su¬ 
perficial ooze, or water retained near the surface 
by a dense liardpan subsoil. Frequently this 
water collects in basins @f the subsoil, and a 
shallow underdrain will effect its removal. 
If a farmer does not feel justified in thor¬ 
oughly underdraiuing any field that is too wet, 
he may at least he able to lay a few lines, two 
or three feet deep, running through the worst 
spots of the field, without much reference to 
its general conformation, aud thus at least re¬ 
move the most evident source of his inconven¬ 
ience and loss. 
Let it he distinctly understood that we do not 
recommend this practice for adoption in any 
case where it is practicable to do any thing 
more; hut there is no reason why a farmer 
should suffer year after year from au annoy¬ 
ance that it is in his power to lessen, because 
his circiwnstauces will notallow him to entirely 
remove it; occasionally a large tract of land 
lying on the slope of a bill, or at its foot, is 
made too wet for profitable cultivation by an 
underground spring, through which-a water 
stratum in the higher land finds vent. In such 
cases, by digging straight into the hill—cutting 
some distance into the water seam—the flow 
maybe induced to seek the artificial outlet; and 
in such a case even a shallow surface drain may 
carry the water away without allowing it an 
opportunity to do harm. 
Water for Cattle in Winter, 
This question affects the farmer’s purse much 
more seriously than is commonly supposed. 
The common resort, even for those who shelter 
their animals, is the neighboring brook or pond,, 
where a hole is cut through the ice every morn¬ 
ing. There is often a long drive to this spot, 
and the cattle waiting for one another shiver in 
the keen winds for an hour or more, to get a 
chance to drink water at a temperature of 32°. 
This ice-water has to he warmed in the ani¬ 
mal’s stomach by the combustion of hay and 
grain. Of course all the food consumed in re¬ 
storing this heat, lost by exposure and by the 
ice-water, is so much wasted. If an ox drinks 
three gallons of ice-water, when lie might have- 
spring-water at 30°, he wastes all the carbon it 
would take to raise three gallons of water from. 
32° to 50°. And this carbon is not in the shape 
of coals or wood, hut in the much more costly 
form of food. We might estimate very accu¬ 
rately just how much is lost every day. But is 
matters very little for the argument, for it is 
clear that it costs no less than if the fodder were 
burned under a boiler and so made to produce 
the same effect. Every one can see that this 
small daily loss amounts to a considerable sum 
in the course of a foddering season of six months,, 
and if this sum is multiplied by the number ©f. 
stock kept, it amounts to an appreciable share- 
of the farmer’s fodder, and may make all the 
difference between loss and profit in the year’s 
operations. We want, if possible, to have water 
for our cattle to drink at the temperature of 
well-water, or as near to 50° as may be, and to- 
liave it brought into the yard, or into their 
mangers. This may be done in several wavs, 
and the method to be adopted is generally best 
determined by its cost. The cheapest method 
is usually to introduce spring-water where a 
sufficient fall can be had within a reasonable 
distance. Even though its first cost for pipe he 
a good deal, it is the cheapest in the end. When 
once well laid, it is a job done for a lifetime. 
The water is brought just where it is wanted, 
and there is no more labor nor expense about it. 
The next best tiling is to bring water from a 
spring below the grade of the barn—either fcy a 
water-ram or by a windmill. Neither of these 
is very expensive, and the result is just as good,, 
minus the cost of the ram or the windmill, 
and of keeping the apparatus in repair, and 
some loss of heat in the water. Another device 
is to build a large cistern to catch the rain-wa¬ 
ter from the roof of the barn. This can be 
done profitably wherever the cistern can he cov¬ 
ered to such a depth in the hank as to keep the 
water at the temperature of spring-waiter. If 
the bottom of the cistern he so high that the 
water can he drawn as wanted through a stop¬ 
cock into the trough or mangers of the cattle, 
all the better. If a pump has to be used, there 
is n® advantage in a cistern over a well, where 
water is within twenty feet of the surface. If 
