6 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
stout figures in gilt are mounted behind, and 
the coachman’s box is nearly as large as the 
whole of an ordinary sized carriage. The 
wheels represent golden suns, and the sides 
of the carriage have beautifully enameled 
paintings. The cream-colored horses when 
harnessed before it must look like the little 
\ mice attached to Cinderella’s chariot. The 
harness for each horse is very large and 
heavy. The gold alone on it for the team of 
eight, is said to weigh eighty pounds. 
There is a fine riding school attached to 
the mews or stables. Here the two young 
Princes exercise on horseback daily when in 
town, and amuse themselves by jumping the 
bar, &c. 
ONE WAY TO DRY FRUIT. 
We recently noticed a simple apparatus 
for drying fruit at the residence of a farmer 
m Dutchess County, a description of which 
may furnish a hint to others. Upon the 
south side of his kitchen is a “ stoop ” some 
ten feet high. Just below the roof is ar¬ 
ranged a shelf or platform, the full size of 
the stoop, and resting on small rollers u£on 
each side ; a sort of railway is formed, each 
rail consisting of two narrow slats or boards 
nailed together, but kept separated about an 
inch from each other by short bits of board 
placed between them at short intervals; 
these railways are nailed up against the two 
sides ol the stoop and project out eight feet 
from the roof. Upon these the drying plat¬ 
form is supported by a number of wheels, or 
pullies, formed by sawing off sections of a 
round stick after a three-quarter inch auger 
hole has been bored through its center; 
these are arranged in the opening between 
the two slats forming each side rail, and are 
held in place by wooden pins put through the 
side pieces. The wheels or pullies stand a 
little above the surface of the rails, and over 
them the platform moves easily. Plums, 
cherries, apples and other fruits are spread 
upon the platform, and during drying days it 
is rolled out upon the projecting supports, 
exposing the fruit to the sun. At evening, 
or upon the approach of rain, the platform is 
easily shoved back under the roof. Such an 
apparatus can be constructed in a single 
day ; it will last for years, and be amply 
sufficient to dry a large quantity of different 
kinds of fruit annually. 
A similar apparatus might be arranged 
upon a garret floor, to be shoved out through 
a temporary opening under the eaves trough. 
In this case the inner portion of the platform 
should be held by pullies over it to prevent 
the outer end from tipping downward. If 
this is done there will be no necessity for 
projecting supports. 
Cotton Crop in Mississippi. —Mr. M. W. 
Phillips, writing from Hinds County, Miss., 
under date of September 3, says that it has 
been raining in that section for about eight 
days, and that cotton, in consequence, is 
very much injured. He says that he has 
never seen so much rust and rotthat he 
has seen five to ten acres without a healthy 
stalk—the mass of them as dead as in mid¬ 
winter; and that he has never seen the like 
before, excepting, perhaps, about 1822. He 
is certain that in Madison and Hinds coun¬ 
ties there will not be an average yield. 
SONG OF THE SPADE. 
BY J. BEDFORD LENO. 
Give me the spade and the man who can use it; 
A fig for your lord and his soft silken hand ; 
Let the man who has strength never stoop to abuse it, 
Give it back to the giver—the land, boys, the land. 
There’s no bank like the earth to deposit your labor— 
The more you deposit, the more you shall have; 
If there’s more than you want you can give to your neigh¬ 
bor, 
And your name shall be dear to the true and the brave. 
Give me the spade—Old England’s glory, 
That fashioned the field from the bleak barren moor, 
Let us speak of its praise with ballad and story, 
While ’tis brightened with labor, not tarnished with 
gore. 
It was not the sword that won our best battle. 
Created our commerce, and extended our trade, 
Gave food for our wives, our children and cattle ; 
But the queen of all weapons, the spade, boys, the 
spade. 
Give me the spade ; there’s a magic about it 
That turns the black soil into bright shining gold ; 
What would our fathers have done, boys, without it, 
When the lands lay all bare, and the north winds blew 
cold? 
Where the tall forests stood, and the wild beasts were 
yelling, 
Where our stout-hearted ancestors shrank back afraid, 
The corn-stack is raised, and mankind claim a dwelling, 
Then, hurrah for our true friend—the spade, boys, the 
spade. 
THE WYANDOT! COEN. 
We have received from Mr. J. C. Thomp¬ 
son, of Tompkinsville, Staten-Island, N. Y., 
a full description of this new, and in some 
respects extraordinary variety of Indian 
corn, from which we condense the follow¬ 
ing: 
Last spring he planted twenty four grains, 
procured from Mr. James R. Thomas, of 
Waverly, Ill., in hills four feet apart, one 
kernel in a hill. About the first week in 
May eighteen grains came up, which at first 
did not differ in appearance from the ordina¬ 
ry corn. When about 18 inches high, shoots 
(not suckers) began to spring up from the 
roots, to the number of seven in some hills. 
These secondary shoots soon outstripped the 
main stalk, and grew to the hight of ten feet 
and over. Up to the first week in August 
there was little prospect of any yield of corn, 
though there were incipient ears numbering 
as high as thirty on a hill. 
During August those ears developed rap¬ 
idly, so that 17 hills contained 82 stalks, 
bearing 123 good ears and 105 immature sets 
for ears, which our season is not sufficiently 
long to mature. All this resulted from only 
17 kernels. One of the hills had six stalks, 
13 mature, and 18 immature ones. 
The corn was in an unfavorable location, 
being shaded on the east and west by trees 
which shut out the morning and evening 
sun. The rapid filling out and growth of 
the ears in September, is represented as re¬ 
ally astonishing to all who watched its pro¬ 
gress. The peculiarity of the variety seems 
to be, first, a full development of stalks and 
leaves from shoots springing from the roots, 
and afterwards a rapid growth and maturing 
of the ears during August and September. 
Mr. Thompson states that he shall have some 
of the seed to dispose of. 
He also forwards to us a copy of a letter 
from Mr. Thomas, dated Waverly, Ill., Aug. 
17, from which we make the following ex¬ 
tracts : 
My crop of Wyandottwas planted at inter¬ 
vals between the 1st and 15th of May, on a flat 
piece of land which had been cultivated four 
years. A cold, wet spell of weather setting 
in about a week after planting, and continuing 
some two weeks, chilled the earth to such a 
degree that the seed was very tardy in ger¬ 
minating, and greatly retarded in its growth 
after coming up. A severe frost cut the 
stalk completely off, compelling me to replant 
about one half my crop. 1 also had the cut¬ 
worm, the mole, and the field-mouse to con¬ 
tend with, each of which attempted to outvie 
the other in their destructive pranks, and all 
of which were very pestiferous to farmers in 
this section the first of the season. But not¬ 
withstanding all these difficulties, my crops of 
W'yandott is pronounced by the farmers who 
have visited it, to be one of the greatest won¬ 
ders ever witnessed by them. The stalk is 
about 12 feet high, as large in circumference 
as an ordinary man’s wrist—averaging four 
stalks in a hill, and bearing from 8 to 20 ears, 
and some as high as 24 ears to a hill, and all 
from one grain. Why, my dear sir, it looks 
or sounds Munchausen-like, but it is here in 
my crop incontestably demonstrated ; and if 
nothing unforeseen occurs to prevent, will be 
witnessed by thousands of persons at our 
State Fair, at Chicago, next October. 
I planted five acres, and allowing for devas¬ 
tation before mentioned, I presume I shall 
have about four acres to gather. My crop is 
filling out rapidly, though late. I noticed 
particularly in 1854, that theWyandott ma¬ 
tured much more rapidly than any other de¬ 
scription growing, and this fact has been re¬ 
marked to me by several this season. I sin¬ 
cerely hope it may prove so in your section . 
You are situated, I believe, in latitude about 
41° ; we are in about 39° 40'—a slight dif¬ 
ference in our favor. On the other hand, the 
difference in longitude being some 15°, is in 
your favor. However, a short time whitest 
to the satisfaction of all, whether it will an¬ 
swer your climate. 
The Oldest Farmer in the World. —Mr. 
Raggers Bagley has purchased one hundred 
and sixty acres of land in Minnesota Terri¬ 
tory, which he intends settling upon and 
improving. Mr. Bagley is one hundred and 
seven years old, and is still an active and 
industrious pioneer, in the enjoyment of ex¬ 
cellent health. A paper will shortly be is¬ 
sued to him from the General Land Office.— 
Washington Union. 
The buckwheat crop in New-York and 
Pennsylvania is this year enormous—sup¬ 
posed to be double that of last year. The 
Pittsburg Chronicle says : “ In the memo¬ 
ry of man the State of Pennsylvania has 
never seen so vast a crop of buckwheat as 
now whitens the fields with its rich blossoms. 
Air is a dish one feeds on every minute, 
and therefore it need be good. 
