253 
American agriculturist. 
he measured a quantity of fine salt (from 
Syracuse salt works) and placed it where 
his neat stock had free access to it. They, 
of their own accord, consumed on an aver¬ 
age a pint of salt each,in 12 days, or about 
2pints per month. This is, probably, 
much above the average, but when mingled 
with hay in its fresh state, salt in part enters 
into its composition, so to speak, and we 
very much doubt whether half a dozen 
quarts will produce any injurious effects. 
On the contrary, we believe there is far 
more danger of injury from musty hay, un¬ 
preserved with salt. Our own animals have 
flourished finely on even poor hay salted, 
and we have often brined it at feeding when 
it was put up without salt, and had become 
a little musty. We have fed many tons of 
wheat and oat straw to neat-stock, sprink¬ 
ling it over well with weak, fresh-made, 
brine. (Brine from meat should never be 
used as it is poisonous.) We do not remem¬ 
ber to have lost an animal, or to have had 
one “scour.” On the contrary they have 
all been usually found in good heart and 
good condition on the opening of Spring. 
One other fact may be stated in this con¬ 
nection. Along the sea-coast farmers find 
their cattle to improve by a frequent feed of 
salt hay. “ The salt meadow hay” is as 
saline as the inland hay with twenty or 
thirty quarts of Syracuse salt added to the 
load.—[E d. 
SALT TO DESTROY WORMS, 
The following from the Germantown Tel¬ 
egraph, may be good, though we are not 
prepared to vouch for the statements : “ A 
weak brine, not exceeding the strength of 
sea water, proves a remedy for the “ squash 
destroyer,” one of the insiduous and per- 
serving, as well as voraciously destructive 
enemies with which the gardener and fruit 
grower is called to contend. It is also a 
most effectual preventive of aphides, or 
plant lice, vermin which prey upon the cab¬ 
bage and turnip tribes. In every instance 
of the application of brine to those vegeta¬ 
bles that has fallen under our observation, 
its success has been complete. No injury 
need be apprehended from a very liberal 
application, say one quart to a plant, if the 
solution be of the strength indicated. 
All the cabbage tribe are liable to be at¬ 
tacked and fatally injured by minute mag¬ 
gots, resembling, very nearly, the maggots 
in cheese, and which are doubtless the larva 
of some fly. There is another enemy, also, 
by which they are frequently infested—a 
small grub, similar in many respects to those 
found in corn and potatoe hills, and which 
not unfrequently prove very destructive. 
Salt water applied to the hills will have a 
tendancy to arrest their depredations, and 
if the application be repeated frequently, 
say one, two, or three days, it will effectu¬ 
ally destroy or drive them off. 
The water, however, should not be allow¬ 
ed to come in contact with the foliage, in 
this instance, but should be applied to the 
soil immediately around the stalks, but with¬ 
out coming in actual contact with them. 
To destroy the first named insect, it may be 
applied in a state sufficiently dilute to admit 
of a perfect ablution of every part of the 
foliage; but, as we said before, care must 
be taken not to make it too strong, or it will 
destroy the plant. Every cook knows or 
ought to know, that the washing of cabbage, 
lettuce, spinach, &c., in salt water before 
cooking or preparing for the table, is sure 
to expel every species of insect which so 
frequently seeks a habitation or a shelter in 
these vegetables. 
CUTTING GRASS AND GRAIN EARLY. 
It is now pretty well established, not only 
on chemical principles, but by oft-repeated 
experiment and observation, that all crops 
designed as food for man or beast should be 
gathered before full maturity. Grass, while 
still green, contains a large proportion of 
starch, sugar and gum, which furnish direct 
nutriment; but these substances are changed 
to hard, indigestable, woody fibre as the 
crop ripens. The same holds true of all 
kinds of grain. Every one is familiar with 
the sweet taste of soft corn or wheat, owing 
to the amount of sugar contained at that pe¬ 
riod of growth. Gum and starch are like¬ 
wise abundant. If the maturing process be 
suddenly arrested at this period, these sub¬ 
stances are preserved unchanged, while, if 
allowed to fully ripen, a considerable por¬ 
tion of them is transformed into the hard, 
woody husk or bran. The main point to be 
looked to is, not to cut grain before suffi¬ 
cient maturity is attained to prevent shrink¬ 
age or a loss of weight. Seed grain may 
well be left to its natural ripening upon the 
stalk. 
Grass should be cut as soon as the seed is 
set, or immediately after flowering is over 
—clover should be cut soon after the full 
bloom is attained. 
A large number of experiments on wheat 
point to about ten days before full maturity 
as the best time for cutting. One of the 
best set of experiments we have seen re¬ 
corded was made by an English farmer, Mr. 
Hannam, of Yorkshire. He made five suc¬ 
cessive cuttings from the same field, with the 
following results : 
Cuttings. 
Days before 
Maturity. 
Products of 100 lbs. of Grain. 
Fine Flour. 
Seconds. 
Bran. 
i 
30 days. 
75 tbs. 
7 lbs. 
17 lbs. 
2 
21 days. 
76 tbs. 
7 lbs. 
16 lbs. 
3 
14 days. 
80 lbs. 
5 lbs. 
13 tbs. 
4 
2 days. 
77 lbs. 
7 lbs. 
14 lbs. 
5 
0 days. 
72 tbs. 
11 lbs. 
15 lbs. 
We have not at hand the relative weight 
of grain gathered at each cutting, but other 
experiments give also the largest yield for 
cuttings corresponding with No. 3. In the 
above example the flour from No. 3 was su¬ 
perior to the others. A practical rule for 
gathering wheat, corn and other grains is to 
commence the cutting just when the kernels 
will yield to a moderate pressure between 
the thumb nails.— [Ed. 
A Frenchman, learning English, and anx¬ 
ious to say something very striking, in 
parting from the lady of his heart, carefully 
consulted his dictionary, and there finding 
that “ to pickle ” meant “ to preserve ,” bid 
her farewell with the emphatic exclamation 
“ may Heaven pickle you I” 
(Sarton, ®rd)ai*£r, Caron, 
FIVE THOUSAND STRAWBERRY BEDS. 
There are among our readers some who 
are confined entirely to the narrow, crowded 
streets of cities, and who only read the 
American Agriculturist to revive the associ¬ 
ations of earlier days, or to be prepared for 
an anticipated hegira to the country in the 
future. Others of this class take this journal 
for its articles relating to household econo¬ 
my. But after deducting all of these, we es¬ 
timate that what we now write will be read 
by about five thousand owners or cultiva¬ 
tors of a large or small plot of ground. In 
looking over the subjects requiring attention 
for this month the thought occurred to us,, 
Is every one of these five thousand persons,, 
who are generally the heads of families, sup¬ 
plied with the cheap luxury of a strawberry 
plot? We have fancied the enjoyment that 
must have been afforded, say at the dinner 
or tea hour on any pleasant day of June, 
when—the heavier dishes having been dis¬ 
patched—on five' thousand tables have ap¬ 
peared five thousand heaping bowls filled 
with luscious, home-grown strawberries, 
and home-made cream enough to float them 
in standing hard by. Such a thought is 
enough to make any one enjoy himself, for 
the time being at least, especially if he 
chance to be one of the five thousand. 
But we are sorry so pleasant a flight of 
fancy must be spoiled by a recurrence to 
what is the real truth, viz.: that probably nor 
over one in five really possesses what we 
would fain have fancied before them—that 
dish of good , home-grown strawberries. 
Perchance not one in ten. We doubt not, 
nearly every family has had a “ mess” or 
two of small wildlings, gathered by the chil¬ 
dren after a long hunt over the pasture field, 
or by trampling down the grass of a meadow 
already too poor to suffer such additional 
hard treatment. But such berries are not 
what we have in mind, not what every one- 
is entitled to, and may easily secure, viz. 
large, delicious, cultivated berries, in short, 
“ strawberries that are strawberries.” 
Mr. Barry stated a truism which has come 
to be a proverb almost, when he said, “ Any 
one who can manage a crop of corn or pota¬ 
toes can, if he will, grow strawberries.” In 
like manner, Mr. A. J. Downing has beauti¬ 
fully remarked that “Ripe, blushing straw'- 
berries, eaten from the plant, or served with 
sugar and cream, are certainly Arcadian 
dainties with a true paradisiacal flavor ; and, 
fortunately, they are so easily grown that 
the poorest owner of a few feet of ground 
may have them in abundance. 
If all this be true, as it most certainly is„ 
why is it that so few persons grow straw-, 
berries ? Why is it that the pleasant fancy 
we were just now indulging has little real 
foundation ? We suspect the reason lies 
just here. Not one in ten have the remotest 
idea of the ease and cheapness with which 
strawberries can be cultivated. With this 
long introduction we offer a few short sim¬ 
ple suggestions for the “ berryless,” with, 
the earnest desire that w hen next June 
