326 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
AN ICE HOUSE 
among the buildings. Not one farmer in 
a hundred has this cheap comfort. It is so 
easily constructed, and so readily filled, and 
saves so many items in the course of a 
summer, that it is strange that so many far¬ 
mers live without one. The important 
things to be secured in the construction of 
an ice house, are good drainage at the bot¬ 
tom, so that water shall not accumulate there; 
ventilation at the top to carry off heated air; 
and a perfect non conducting medium at the 
sides. It matters little what wall holds this 
medium. Stone, brick, coarse slabs, or 
smooth boards. A cube of twelve feet 
square will be ice enough for a family. Tan 
bark, saw-dust, charcoal are all good to 
stuff the walls with. 
Ice water is so pleasant and healthful a 
beverage in summer, that no family 
having once enjoyed it will ever consent to 
go without it. The opinion which prevails 
in some parts, that it is prejudicial to health 
is without foundation. It is probably owing 
to some isolated cases of injury in conse¬ 
quence of an abuse of the article. It is al¬ 
most as universal in the large cities as wa¬ 
ter itself, and no class of men better appre¬ 
ciate a glass of ice water than the guardians 
of the public health. 
An ice box in the cellar, or at the door 
saves in meats, and in perishable fruits and 
vegetables, every season much more than 
the ice costs. Let every thrifty farmer build 
an ice house this fall, and fill it next winter. 
FENCES. 
These were models for all farmers, who 
have stony farms and plenty of capital. 
They are made of stone dug from the soil, 
and answer the double purpose of inclosing 
lots, and of making a market for the super¬ 
abundant rock. Some of them are six feet 
thick, handsomely faced, and look like the 
foundation work of a fortification. The re¬ 
pairs have been very thorough on most parts 
of the farm, and more expensive walls have 
been built than we should recommend to 
farmers with small means. One two acre 
lot has been cleared and fenced at an ex¬ 
pense of some $800, and even with this 
large outlay it pays a much better interest 
than when the whole farm was rented for 
fifty. The walls by the high-way, though 
not all so expensive as this, are well made 
and attractive in their appearance. In the 
back lots, the old walls have been re-set and 
in some cases removed, making the fields 
larger, which we regard as a very desirable 
improvement upon most farms. 
UNDERDRAINING. 
In the two acre lot, which we have no¬ 
ticed, Mr. Bill pointed out an under-drain 
nearly its entire length. The middle of the 
lot was formerly a swale, wet most of the 
time, and in the winter and spring, miry. 
The drain was dug five feet deep, and at the 
bottom a channel about a foot in width and 
the same in depth, was constructed of 
stone. The top was formed of flat stones, 
the interstices filled with cobbles, and 
then larger stones on top to the depth of 
two or three feet, and the drain filled in 
with surface earth. The drain empties at 
the lower part of the lot, and furnishes a 
living spring of excellent water, available at 
all seasons. The drain has completely 
changed the character of the lot. It is now 
always dry enough and yields abundant 
crops instead of stinted sour grasses. It pro¬ 
duces the largest growth of corn, oats and 
hay immediately over the drain. The lot 
cuts now when in grass about eight loads of 
hay of the best quality, against one when it 
lay unimproved, in other words eight blades 
of grass grow for one. 
This experiment has been so successful, 
that other similar improvements are pro¬ 
jected upon the farm, and all the low wet 
places in the tilled land are bound to be 
drained. 
STOCK. 
This consists of 8 cows, 5 yoke of oxen, 
15 head of young cattle, and about two hun¬ 
dred sheep. Hens are the only poultry al¬ 
lowed upon the place—the neighbors living 
too near each other to admit of keeping geese, 
turkeys, and ducks. The cattle are mostly 
grades, but embrace some fine animals. 
There were four calves, grade Devons, 
very handsome. Mr. Bill finds it profitable 
to raise his calves, both for his own farm, 
and to make beeves for sale to the butcher. 
In the interior of the country, young cattle 
are purchased mostly at Brighton, and after 
spending a few months upon the farm to 
fatten are resold for beef. He has South 
Down blood in his flock of sheep, and disposes 
of a large quantity of wool and mutton. 
CROPS. 
He has about nine acres in Indian corn of 
the large yellow dent variety. He plants 
about four feet each way, plows deep, ma¬ 
nures heavy, cultivates thoroughly, keeps a 
flat hill, and gets great crops. There was 
one peculiarity in his corn planting, which 
confirms our own opinions and practice. He 
plants late, about the first week in June. 
The advantages of this are a better setting 
of the young plants, less second planting, 
and less trouble in cultivation. The ground 
is then thoroughly warm, and the plants 
push along without any check, and mature 
as early as corn planted the first week in 
May. He thinks it saves the labor of once 
hoeing. From our own experience, and 
observation, we are persuaded it is idle to 
plant corn early in May, in latitudes north 
of this city. 
Potatoes were formerly raised very large¬ 
ly for market in this vicinity, but they be¬ 
came so uncertain that the farmer only seeks 
to supply himself with this esculent. Mr. 
Bill has but an acre and a half. Oats, grass 
and rye are the other leading crops. 
On the whole we were greatly pleased with 
our visit. It shows what a rough New Eng¬ 
land farm may become under the hand of 
skillful cultivation. Such bright spots are 
multiplying all through the East. The good 
time so long prophesied, if it have not al¬ 
ready come, is surely coming.— Ed. 
Success is the great absolution of snobs. 
Critics are the brokers of the literary ex¬ 
change.—Punch, 
FROM OUR WATERLOO CORRESPONDENT. 
Fall Treatment of Manures—Husking Corn 
—N. Y. State Agricultural College — Agri¬ 
cultural Exhibitions. 
Waterloo, N. Y., Oct., 1850. 
Manures. —Most farmers in Western 
New-York apply their stable manure to their 
corn ground in the Spring, by hauling it di¬ 
rectly from the yard to the field, where it is 
immediately plowed in ; thus all the ammo¬ 
nia, as fast as generated, is saved in the soil. 
But that masterly farmer of Seneca County, 
John Johnson, says that the Fall is the right 
time to haul out and spread manure on the 
grass field intended to be broken up in the 
Spring for a crop of corn. He asserts that 
manure spread after September, in the Fall, 
loses none of its organic matter, and that it 
induces a late and early growth of grass 
through the scattered manure to be plowed 
under, which is an additional amendment to 
the corn crop. 
Mr. J. is undoubtedly correct, if the ma¬ 
nure can be kept through the Summer by 
compression, or composting, so as to avoid 
a too rapid fermentation; but if stable ma¬ 
nure is kept exposed in heaps in the ordina¬ 
ry way, it will heat and lose by combustion, 
during Summer, most of its organic matter, 
all of which is saved if the winter made ma¬ 
nure is plowed into the soil the same Spring, 
instead of the succeeding one. Hence, I 
take it, Mr. Johnson’s plan will be followed 
by those Eastern farmers who make the 
most of their animal manures by composting 
them with peat, muck, &c., by which pro¬ 
cess a slow combustion only takes place, 
and nearly all the ammonia is retained in 
the heap; and if spread on the field in the 
Fall it will be found a great renovator of the 
grass, as well as the most economical ma¬ 
nure for a Summer crop of grain when 
plowed under in the Spring. 
Husking Corn. —Some of our best Penn¬ 
sylvania German farmers cut up and shock 
their corn early, and haul it into their capa¬ 
cious barns as soon after fall seeding is over 
as possible ; thus saving the fodder from 
the Fall rains. Here they husk it every 
leisure opportunity, improving the rainy 
daj<s. The stalks are thrown on the hay¬ 
mow, or fed out in early Winter, when even 
the butts are sweet and juicy. Corn stalks 
thus appropriated are worth double the 
bleached things that remain uncut until 
nipped by the first white frost, and are ex¬ 
posed to late fall rains in the shock. 
The N. Y. State Agr. College. —The 
buildings for this College will soon be in 
progress of erection. Six hundred and sev¬ 
enty acres of heavy tenacious soil, all fit for 
the plow, must make a large experimental 
farm, particularly when cereal and legumi¬ 
nous culture is the desideratum to teach the 
practical part of vegetable physiology in its 
relation to the soil and its constituents. But 
I suppose that cattle, horses, as well as 
sheep, of the various breeds, are to be mul¬ 
tiplied and improved there. 
I could have joined the Cayugans in pre¬ 
ferring a smaller farm on that matchless 
section of the earth’s surface near Sheldrake 
Point. It is only in this vicinity, on the 
