AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
81 
field plowed deep and thoroghly, and the 
earth thrown lip as much as possible into 
ridges, and thus let it remain during'the win¬ 
ter. Next spring he had the field again 
plowed as deep as before, then cross plowed 
and thoroughly pulverized with a heavy 
harrow, then sowed it with oats and clover. 
The yield was excellent—nothing to be 
compared to it had ever before been seen 
upon that field. Next year it gave two crops 
of clover, of a rich dark green, and enor¬ 
mously heavy and luxuriant; and the year 
following, after being manured at an expense 
of some $7 an acre, nine acres of the field 
yielded 936 bushels of corn, and 25 wagon 
loads of pumpkins ; while from the remain¬ 
ing three acres were taken 100 bushels of 
potatoes—the return of this crop being up¬ 
wards of $1,200. The time had now come 
for the field to fall into the young man’s pos¬ 
session, and the farmer unhesitatingly offered 
him $1,500 to relinquish his title to it; and 
when this was as unhesitatingly refused, he 
offered $2,000, which was accepted. 
The young man’s account stood thus : 
Half proceeds of oats and straw, first year.$165 00 
Half value of sheep pasturage, first year. 25 00 
Half of first crops of clover, first year. 112 50 
Half of second crops of clover, including seed, sec¬ 
ond year. 135 00 
Half of sheep pasturage, second year. 15 00 
Half of crops of corn, pumpkins and potatoes, third 
year. 600 00 
Received from farmer for relinquishment oftitle. .2,000 00 
Account Dr. $3,152 50 
To underdraining,labor and tiles.$325 00 
To labor and manure, 3 seasons. 475 00 
To labor given to farmer, $16 per month, 
36 months. . 576 00 — 1,377 00 
Balance in his favor.$1,776 50 
Our farmers must learn that knowledge 
and enterprise and perseverance exercised in 
their business, will not only add a hundred 
fold to their own income, but will also con¬ 
fer more permanent benefits upon our coun¬ 
try than these qualities exercised in the same 
degree in any other business whatever.—W. 
D., in N. Y. Times. 
BE SYSTEMATIC, 
It will add more to your convenience and 
comfort through life than you can imagine. 
It saves time, saves temper, saves patience, 
and saves money. For a while it may be a 
little troublesome, but. you will soon find that 
it is easier to do right than wrong; that it is 
easier to act by rule than without one. 
Be systematic in everything; let it extend 
to the most minute trifles, it is not beneath 
you. Whitfield could not go to sleep at 
night, if, after retiring, he remembered that 
his gloves and riding whip were not in their 
usual place, where he could lay his hand on 
them in the dark, on any emergency; and 
such are the men who leave their mark for 
good on the world’s history. It was by his 
systematic habits from youth to age that 
Noah Webster was enabled to leave to the 
world his great dictionary. “ Method was 
the presiding principle of his life,” writes 
his biographer. 
Systematic men are the only reliable men ; 
they are the men who comply with their en¬ 
gagements. They are minute men. The 
man who has nothing to do, is the man who 
does nothing. The man of system is soon 
known to do all that he engages to do ; to do 
it well and do it at the time promised ; con¬ 
sequently he has his hands full. When I 
want any mechanical job done, I go to the 
man whom I always find busy, and I do not 
fail to find him the man to do that job prompt¬ 
ly, and to the hour. 
And more, teach your children to be sys¬ 
tematic. Begin with your daughters at five 
years of age ; give them a drawer or two 
for their clothing ; make it a point to go to 
that drawer any hour of the day and night; 
and if each article is not properly arranged, 
give quiet and rational admonition ; if ar¬ 
ranged well, give affectionate praise and en¬ 
couragement. Remember that children, as 
well as grown people, will do more to retain 
a name, than to make one. 
As soon as practicable, let your child have 
a room which shall be its own, and treat that 
room as you did the drawer ; thus you will 
plant and cultivate a habit of systematic 
action, which will bless that child while 
young, increase the blessing when the child 
bocomes a parent, and extend its pleasur¬ 
able influences to the close of life. A single 
unsystematic person in a house, is a curse 
to any family. A wife who has her whole 
establishment so arranged, from cellar to at¬ 
tic, that she knows, on any emergency where 
to go for a required article, is a treasure to 
any man, (my experience, reader A while one 
who never knows where anything is, and 
when it is by accident found, is almost sure 
to find it crumpled, soiled, out of order. 
Such a wife as this latter is unworthy of the 
name, and is a living reproach to the mother 
who bore her.—Journal of Health. 
CHAPTER ON CURRANTS. 
There is no class of fruits so much neglect¬ 
ed as the currant, and none possessing so 
many good qualities and so susceptible of 
improvement, under good cultivation. Plant¬ 
ed in some far off corner, where other fruits 
would starve and die, it is left to take care of 
itself, receiving no care in the way of manur¬ 
ing and pruning, or mulching. 
In almost every garden where they are 
planted, we find them complete nuisances— 
hedge-rows of poor weak straggling branch¬ 
es, utterly incapable of producing good sized 
fair fruit. 
In the production of new varieties, the 
currant has been sadly neglected, while 
every year adds to the too already extended 
lists of pear, apple, peach, &c., until within 
a very few years we have had nothing new 
added to this list. Lately, however, several 
new varieties have been sent out from Eng¬ 
land, some of which promise to become wor¬ 
thy of extended cultivation. 
To cultivate the currant thoroughly, it 
should be pruned to one stock six or eight 
inches high, and planted against the south 
side of the garden fence for fruiting early in 
the season, and against the north side for 
fruiting later ; in this way the fruiting season 
may be much lengthened. Suckers should 
by all means be removed as fast as they ap¬ 
pear, and the head pruned annually, keeping 
a sufficient distance from eachjother to admit 
the sun and air—the young shoots should be 
shortened at least one-half of last season’s 
growth, thus keeping up a good supply of 
lateral spurs for fruiting the succeeding sea¬ 
son. 
The ground around each bush must be 
kept well pulverzied, andhave a top dressing 
every fall, with a covering of fine manure, 
or good compost. Fork this in in the spring, 
and apply immediately under the branches a 
mulching three or four inches thick of de¬ 
cayed leaves, grass, or fine straw. Repeat 
this every year, and very soon you will be 
surprised at the quality and quantity of your 
fruit. We gathered a few days ago fifteen 
varieties, nearly all of which were very fine. 
Among them were the following, with the 
description taken at the time: 
“ W T hite Grape.” The finest and largest 
of all white currants; the bunches large; 
berries very large and closely set, pale white 
but quite transparent ; the bush rather a 
slow grower ; wood short and stout; leaves 
dark green. The “ White Dutch” has been 
to some extent confounded with this. 
“ Red Dutch.” The bunches are short, 
compact; bush of fair size ; the berries are 
large, high colored and rich, and for jams and 
jellies have no superior ; free grower and 
abundant bearer; best of red currants. 
“ Red Grape.” A fine grower and good 
bearer, with long bunches ; large light red 
berries ; quite acid. 
“ Champagne.” A new variety, fruiting 
with us for the first time; evidently a cross 
between a white and red. The bunches are 
of fair size ; leaves medium, color light deli¬ 
cate pink. I think when more extensively 
known will be much in demand for preserv¬ 
ing. 
“ Cherry Currant.” Berries very large, 
at least one-third larger than Red Grape, 
bunches short, very compact; a vigorous 
grower, and with close pruning an abundant 
bearer. 
“ Victoria.” Bunches of enormous length; 
berries above medium size, pale red ; abund¬ 
ant bearer, and trained against the north side 
of a tight fence may be kept till August. 
“ Morgan’s White.” Pale w-hite, of good 
size ; abundant bearer, but very acid. 
“ Rotterdam White.” Similar to the above, 
but sweeter and richer. 
“ Black Naples.” Best of the black cur¬ 
rants ; bunches of good size ; berries above 
medium. These are much used in England 
for jams and jellies, but as yet are little cul 
ivated in this country. 
“Rotterdam Red,” “ Long Bunched Red,” 
“ Knight’s Early Red,” “ Pitmaston Red,” 
are all good red varieties ; similar, except in 
length of bunches. 
“ Knight’s Sweet Red.” Bunches long; 
berries large: abundant bearer ; one of the 
sweetest. 
Any of the foregoing, with the treatment 
and pruning recommended, will produce 
well.—.T. B. G., in Progressive Farmer. 
The Hoosiers on the W’abash turn their 
“agy shakes” to some account. They 
climb into the top of a “ shellbark ” just as 
