24 
[AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
American ^griadtorai 
Mew-York, Wednesday, September 20, 1854, 
To Correspondents. —We must again beg the 
indulgence of our correspondents for any appa¬ 
rent neglect. Our table is loaded with a “ moun¬ 
tain pile” of communications, Reports, Show and 
Premium Lists, &c., which have accumulated 
during our interruptions from office duties for a 
few weeks past. Though in temporary poor 
health we are laboring night and day, and hope 
soon to get all straight. 
Reports of State and County Shows. —So 
numerous have these exhibitions now become, 
and so crowded together into a few weeks are 
the days on which they are held, that we can¬ 
not hope to give any thing like a report in de¬ 
tail. We shall be obliged to any one furnish¬ 
ing a short report of such (Jaings as are particu¬ 
larly important and interesting, but we hope no 
one will ask us to publish a long account of pro¬ 
ceedings which possess only a local interest. 
We can devote one or two pages each week to 
such reports as will convey information of an 
interesting or useful character. 
- « - 
FROST AS A MANURE. 
We know of no treatment so directly ben¬ 
eficial, for almost every class of soils as that of 
throwing up land in narrow ridges in the fall or 
early winter. There are few soils worth culti¬ 
vating at all, that do not contain more or less 
materials which can be made available to plants 
by the combined action of air and frost. 
Take two plots of heavy soil, side by side, 
and let one lie unmoved till spring, while the 
other is deeply plowed in autumn, and the result 
will be very visible in the spring crop. But 
the manner of plowing is important. To secure 
the greatest advantage, a single furrbw should 
be thrown up and another back-furrowed directly 
upon it so as to produce a high ridge, then ano¬ 
ther ridge is to be made in the same manner 
with a deep dead farrow between the two. The 
process is to be continued thus through the 
whole field, so that when finished it will present 
a surface of high ridges and deep dead furrows 
succeeding each other, about once in two or two 
and a half feet. If prepared in this way, the 
frost will penetrate far downward, loosening and 
disintegrating the soil below the furrows, while 
the ridges will crumble down, and as they will 
not hold water, the air will circulate freely 
through them, decomposing the mineral portions, 
and conveying in ammonia and other gasses. 
This operation will be equal to ten or more loads 
of good manure upon clay or compact soils. 
In the spring it will only be necessary to run 
a plow once or twice through the center of each 
ridge, and then level the whole down with a 
heavy harrow. 
Another advantage in this process, is that 
when land is thus prepared it dries out and 
warms several days earlier in the spring. Again 
there are some soils that are exhausted upon the 
surface, but which contain poisonous substances 
in the sub-soil. If this sub-soil is thrown up in 
contact with the air and frost during winter, 
these poisonous compounds (usually protorsul- 
phate of iron or manganese) will be destroyed, or 
changed to a harmless form, during the winter. 
The above practice is especially to be recom¬ 
mended in the garden. One of the most suc¬ 
cessful cultivators of an acre of ground in our 
acquaintance, digs it up in the fall to the depth 
of three to four feet, making deep trenches and 
high ridges so that the whole acre appears to 
be covered with high winrows of hay placed 
closely together. 
We strongly urge every farmer who has not 
tried this method, to lay out their plans now 
for experiment in this way, on a larger or smaller 
scale, during the present season. 
WHEAT AND RYE FOR PASTURE. 
Those who are short in grass and corn fod¬ 
der, should immediately put in a good quantity 
of wheat or rye for pasture. The former is so 
much the most nutritious, that it will pay in 
pasture for stock, for the difference in the price 
of seed. The ground ought to be made rich, 
so as to insure a rank growth this fall. It 
may be pastured again in the spring, and then 
produce a fair crop of grain. 
Farmers lose much annually, but more espe¬ 
cially during a drouth, by not paying more at¬ 
tention to cultivated grasses for their stock. 
Under this head we name corn stalks, as well 
as wheat, rye, clover, &c. Even the wild su¬ 
gar cane is nothing more than a grass, botani- 
cally speaking. 
BORAX WASHING RECIPE. 
A -number of new subscribers have requested 
us to republish the above recipe, which ap¬ 
peared in a former number, (Vol. XI., page 
279.) We have been waiting to give the re¬ 
sults of some careful experiments which were 
being made in our own family, but which were 
broken off by sickness. Enough, however, was 
ascertained to convince us that there is really a 
great advantage in adding a small quantity of 
borax to common hard soap, previous to using 
it for washing. Our method is as follows: To 
every pound of hard soap add from one-half to 
three-quarters of an ounce of common borax, 
with one quart of water. Put the water in any 
convenient vessel upon the stove, add the borax, 
somewhat pulverized, and then put in the soap 
cut up in thin pieces. Keep them hot—but not 
boiling—for two or three hours, or until the 
whole is well dissolved, and then set it aside to 
cool, when a solid mass will be formed. If the 
vessel is set upon the warm stove at night, the 
operation will be completed in the morning, 
though we think it better to stir the mass just 
before it is cooled. 
The night before washing, rub the clothes 
where most soiled, with the soap, and soak in 
water till morning. This soap, which has been 
more than doubled in quantity, will go quite as 
far, bulk for bulk, as the original, thus saving 
at least one half. The boiling and washing are 
to be performed in the usual manner; but it 
will be found that the labor of rubbing is di¬ 
minished three-fourths, while the usual caustic 
or eating effect of the soap, is greatly lessened; 
and the hands will retain a peculiarly soft and 
silky feeling, even after a large washing.' The 
preparation is adapted to all kinds of fabrics, 
colored or uncolored, including flannels, and it 
is thought to increase their whiteness. By 
using this preparation, with the previous soak¬ 
ing over night, we have had sixteen dozen 
pieces finished early in the forenoon, when, by 
the old process, it would have been an “ all 
day’s job.” 
BURNING FLUIDS--EXPL0SI0NS! 
We scarcely take up a newspaper which does 
not contain an account of one or more “ Explo¬ 
sions” of fluid lamps. We have carefully noted 
these paragraphs for a long time, and we are 
free to say, that we have not yet found a single 
genuine explosion recorded, and we very much 
doubt whether ten explosions have occurred in 
five years past. Let any one examine the next 
dozen reports, and mark whether the accidents 
do not occur while the lamps are being filled. 
It is as impossible to burst a lamp when the cap 
is unscrewed, as to burst a gun with a thimble- 
full of powder with no wad over it. We have 
made nearly a hundred experiments upon various 
burning fluids, and after many careful trials, we 
have been unable to break a lamp of any pat¬ 
tern when the cup was off, although every pre¬ 
caution was taken to have the lamp entirely 
filled with a due mixture of gas and atmos¬ 
pheric air. Once in about forty trials we suc¬ 
ceeded in breaking the lamp by filling it entirely 
with the proper mixture of fluid vapor and air, 
screwing down the cap, stopping up one wick- 
tube tightly, and then lighting the confined mix¬ 
ture through the other tube, which was left open 
for the purpose. The fact is, ninety-nine out of 
every hundred reported cases of “ explosions,” 
are merely the taking fire of the fluid while 
carelessly filling the lamp still burning, or by 
bringing the fluid too near another light. When 
this takes place, the person usually drops the 
lamp and can in their fright, and as a necessary 
consequence the fluid runs out and takes fire, 
and often produces serious injury. 
When a lamp is nearly exhausted it becomes 
warm, and rapidly turns to vapor the first fluid 
poured in. If the wick is still burning, or ano¬ 
ther lamp is near by, this gas, which rapidly 
diffuses itself through the air, takes fire, produc¬ 
ing a large flame , (not an explosion,) and the 
stream of fluid running from the can, is scattered 
over the person performing the operation. If 
the clothing is of a combustible material, serious 
burning often results, and the papers immediately 
charge the whole affair to an “ explosion.” The 
domestic herself is glad to tax to this cause a 
result brought about by her own careless diso¬ 
bedience of positive orders. 
We think a great proportion of accidents 
would be avoided, if newspapers would state 
such occurrences correctly, attributing the result 
entirely to fire caused by sheer carelessness, for 
in this case greater care would be exercised 
than when the danger is supposed to result from 
a kind of inevitable explosion. 
From what is said above, it will be observed 
that care should be taken both to avoid near¬ 
ness to flame in filling, and also never to leave 
one of the wick tubes without a covering or a 
wick in it. If a wick happens to be deficient, 
let the tube be kept covered with an extinguish¬ 
ing cap, or cork it up with a bit of wood, cloth, 
or paper. 
-• -*-• - 
Better read little with thought, than much 
with levity and quickness. 
