AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
351 
'harvested, and from the one bushel of seed 
'thus sown, sixty-two bushels of first-rate 
'grain were gathered. The entire cost of 
'cultivation, up to the time of cutting, he es¬ 
timates at $1, the cost of the bushel of seed, 
rs the cultivating and hoeing of the corn 
was required at any rate.— [Ed. 
BAM CELLARS. 
Editor American Agriculturist: 
I am glad to see that farmers are begin¬ 
ning to appreciate the importance of having 
a cellar for manure under their barns ; for 
in journeying through the country I fre¬ 
quently find them raising their barns several 
feet from the original foundations, and ex¬ 
cavating the earth beneath to make not only 
a covert for stock, but also a place for the 
protection and manufacture of manure. I 
.am glad to see this very important reforma¬ 
tion taking place, for the loss in allowing 
.manures to remain exposed to the parching 
sun and drenching rains is almost incalcula¬ 
ble. As manure is indispensable to the rais¬ 
ing of good crops throughout the east, and 
must soon be beneficial to the now fertile 
vallies and prairies of the west, it should be 
the study and aim of every farmer carefully 
to preserve it, without permitting its fertili¬ 
zing properties to escape. 
I know of no means by which this can be 
accomplished better than by a well construct¬ 
ed Barn Cellar, which should be one of the 
indispensable appurtenances of a well regu¬ 
lated farm, and I hold it a duty of those who 
have tried the experiment, and whose load¬ 
ed granaries attest to its value, to urge upon 
their brother farmers the construction of 
these cellars, until it would be as strange to 
find them erecting houses without cellars, as 
barns. 
Farmers are annually expending large 
sums of money in the purchase of Guano 
and patent manures, which may possibly 
answer, if their farms are located adjacent 
to our large cities, where products find a 
ready market at good prices, and the ex¬ 
pense of transportation is a trifle, with no 
natural facilities for making manure at home. 
But back in the country, where on nearly 
every farm may be found a swale filled with 
muck, or any quantity of loam may be taken 
from the road-side without price, the farmer 
will find that instead of purchasing patent 
or artificial manures, it will be decidedly to 
his advantage to construct a barn cellar, 
and manufacture his own compost. 
The liquid portion of manure made by a 
stock of cattle, if properly saved, is nearly 
equal to the solid excrement; but the for¬ 
mer is mostly lost without a cellar, while 
with one it can all be saved. 
Scuttles should be constructed in the floor 
through which the liquid will pass, and the 
solid should be thrown to the cellar beneath, 
where a good supply of loam and muck 
should at all times be kept to absorb the fluid. 
A goodly number of swine should always be 
kept in the cellar, as co-workers with the 
farmer in the mixing process. Manure of 
an excellent qualify may in this way be 
manufactured in abundance, and at a small 
cost after the cellar is once constructed. 
I consider muck far superior to loam, and 
it should be dug from the pit in the summer 
or fall, when there is little water to trouble. 
Muck requires exposure to the action of the 
frost one winter before it is used, which can 
be done by throwing it in ridges directly 
from the pit or swamp, and carting it to the 
cellar at any leisure time during the spring, 
summer, or autumn. 
The cellar should be so constructed that 
it will not freeze, thus allowing the mixing 
to be done during the winter. 
.Tames Fellows. 
Concord, N. H. 
SILVERING FLUIDS AND POWDERS, BAD AND 
GOOD-IMPORTANT CAUTION. 
Persons can not be too cautious in the 
purchase, and especially in the use of certain 
articles sold about the country, as “silvering 
fluids,” and “ silvering powders.” We have 
examined a large number of these in the la¬ 
boratory, and have never yet found a particle 
of silver in any one of them. On the con¬ 
trary they contain mercury (quick-silver), 
and their inevitable effect will be in the end 
to injure the surface of any metal to which 
they are applied. A little mercury beat into 
whiting or clay, disappears, but when this 
mixture is rubbed upon brass or copper, the 
mercury adheres to the surface, and the rub¬ 
bing gives it a brilliant silver-like appearance 
which most persons would mistake for sil¬ 
ver itself. But this bright surface soon tar¬ 
nishes, and what is worse, the mercury eats 
into or dissolves the metal upon which it is 
placed, greatly injuring it. A few coatings 
applied upon a silver teaspoon, for example, 
will so combine with the silver as to render 
it almost as brittle as a pipe stem. 
The article most commonly sold by pedlers 
at street corners, at agricultural exhibitions 
and at other public gatherings, is a solution 
of mercury in nitric acid (aqua fortis). A 
drop of this liquid put upon copper, brass 
and other metallic surfaces, at once depos- 
ites the silver-like mercury, and it will in¬ 
stantly brighten up silver ware, but the 
brightness is temporary, and the ultimate 
result very injurious. We repeat then, 
never purchase, at least never use any of 
these silver powders or solutions upon any 
article of value. 
We offered a similar precaution some 
years ago, and have repeated it once or twice 
since, but we still find the venders of these 
humbug preparations are extensively patron¬ 
ized, and therefore, repeat the caution. 
A genuine silvering fluid may be made, 
though we have never seen one on sale, 
probably because the preparation is expen¬ 
sive, and the mercurial solution sells quite 
as readily to the ignorant unwary crowd. 
We give a recipe for the genuine article : 
Dissolve some silver, a piece of coin for 
example, in double its weight of strong ni¬ 
tric acid. Take a piece of cyanide of po¬ 
tassium about ten times the weight of the 
silver employed, and dissolve it in clean 
rain water, say 1 pint of water to H ounces 
of the cyanide of potassium. Then mix the 
silver and the cyanide solutions together. 
To the fluid thus formed add a quantity of 
fine whiting, say double the weight of the 
silver. Stir this in well, and the silvering 
solution is complete. It should be remem¬ 
bered that all these operations are to be per¬ 
formed in glass or well glazed earthen ves¬ 
sels, and the liquid should be kept in glass- 
stoppered bottles. To use this preparation, 
on a brass door knob or candlestick for ex¬ 
ample, shake it up well and rub it on with a 
piece of cotton. Two or more applications 
may be necessary. The surface is to be. 
polished with dry whiting which is finally 
removed, and the article washed with clean 
water and dried off with a dry cloth. Any 
expert druggist can easily make such a pre¬ 
paration.— [Ed. 
KEE PING RECORDS, IMPORTANT TO FARMERS. 
The following is the closing part of a let¬ 
ter, giving an account of crops, &c.— [Ed. 
Permit me to fill out my sheet by mak¬ 
ing a suggestion relative to farming opera¬ 
tions. Every farmer should keep a register 
or Journal made up daily, or at least weekly. 
It should contain the process adopted in the 
culture of his crops, such as the charac¬ 
ter of the soil selected for any particular 
crop, mode of manuring or fertilizing, the 
state of plowing, planting, sowing, the kind 
and quantity of seed per acre, the time of 
harvesting, and the quantity raised on any 
given area, together with the daily state of 
the weather, rainy, cloudy, fair, warm or 
cold, with the direction of the wind, with 
the first appearance and duration, and effect 
of destructive insects to crops, with any 
mode that might be adopted to prevent their 
ravages. 
Such a journal to refer to, would be to the 
farmer, what the compass is to the mariner. 
He would then know without relying on 
treacherous memory, all favorable results, 
and the causes that produced them. He 
could also see all the failures and mistakes, 
and would be likely to ascertain wherein 
success did not attend his efforts. If much 
of the success of the farmer is derived from 
experience, let me ask what is experience ? 
It is knowing precisely the past management, 
in connection with every thing that had an 
influence upon results, and profiting there¬ 
by. Can he retain all this in his memory? 
certainly not. The very causes mainly pro¬ 
ductive of the results, might not be retained ; 
while other matters, having little or nothing 
to do w ith it might be, and operate as a guide 
for the future, leading in a wrong direction. 
Ask many farmers at the close of the year, 
how much they have made. They can tell 
nothing about it. They do not know wheth¬ 
er they are advancing or retrograding. But 
ask him who keeps a journal, and notes 
down all his operations, and he can tell you 
whether he can afford to purchase his wife 
a new carpet, or send one of his daughters to 
a Seminary. C. B. Rising. 
“ Mike,” asked a man who was watching 
this sportsman's movements, “ why don't 
you fire at those ducks—don't you see you 
have got the whole flock before your gun?” 
“ I know I have, but when I get a good aim 
at one, two or three others will swim right 
up between it and me.” 
