AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
not even mention, for the reason that gentle¬ 
men who will visit our establishment I no¬ 
tice never speak of it. I understand that the 
climate of this place is excessively hot, and 
that it is intended as an abode of punishment 
for wicked bipeds, especially those who 
abuse poor horses and other animals. Well, 
you know, Messrs. Editors, that we horses 
have but little idea of theology, so you will 
not think me a very immoral animal when I 
acknowledge that sometimes, when I have 
been dragging my wearisome load up the 
horrid ascent of Chatham-square, I have not 
only felt that my owners, the driver, and all 
the passengers who were so cruelly over¬ 
burdening me, were fast hastening to the 
warm region to which I have alluded ; but, 
in my heart’s agony, I have even wished 
they were there now. 
With great respect, I remain your exhausted 
and broken down Barbarossa. 
Commercial Advertiser. 
AN ECCENTRIC MRS, BIDDY. 
Nothing seems so aimless and simple as 
a hen. She usually goes about in a vague 
and straggling manner, articulating to herself 
cacophonous remarks upon various topics. 
The greatest event in a hen’s life is com¬ 
pound, being made up of an egg and a cackle. 
Then only she shows enthusiasm, when she 
descends from the nest of duty, and proclaims 
her achievement. If you chase her, she 
runs cackling; if you pelt her with stones, 
she streams through the air cackling all 
abroad till the impulse has run out, when 
she subsides quietly into a silly, gadding hen. 
Now and then, an eccentric hen may be 
found, stepping quite beyond the limits of 
hen-propriety. One such has persisted in 
laying her daily egg in the house. She 
would steal noiselessly in at the open door, 
walk up stairs, and leave a plump egg upon 
the children’s bed. The next day she would 
honor the sofa. On one occasion she se¬ 
lected my writing-table, and scratching my 
papers about, left her card, that I might not 
blame the children or servants for scattering 
my manuscripts. Her determination was 
amusing. One Sabbath morning, we drove 
her out of the second-story window, then 
again from the front hall. In a few moments 
she was heard behind the house, and on 
looking out the window, she was just disap¬ 
pearing into the bed-room window on the 
ground-floor ! Word was given, but before 
any one could reach the place, she had bolted 
out of the window with victorious cackle, 
and her white, warm egg lay upon the lounge. 
I proposed to open the pantry-window, set 
the egg-dish within her reach, and let her put 
them up herself, but those inauthority would 
not permit such a deviation from propriety. 
Such a breed of hens could never be popular 
with the boys. It would spoil that glorious 
sport of hunting hen’s nest. [Independant. 
A Magnificent Farm and Farmer. —A Ver¬ 
mont paper says : “ Among the conspicu¬ 
ous men in the Vermont Legislature is Mr. 
B. G. Brigham, of Fairfield. He owns and 
cultivates 1,300 acres of land. Among his 
barn-yard items are two hundred and twenty 
cows, twenty horses, and five yoke of oxen. 
In his dairy he makes butter only. The aver¬ 
age yield of butter from the milk of each cow 
is one hundred and fifty pounds. Two huge 
‘ dasher ’ churns are set in motion by two 
‘ horse-powers,’ and the butter is ‘ worked ’ 
by the old-fashioned ‘ paddle.’ His stock of 
cattle consume about five hundred tons of 
hay annually. 20,000 lbs. of pork, 500 bush¬ 
els of wheat, from 400 to 500 bushels of corn, 
1,000 bushels of oats, and from 1,000 to 2,000 
bushels of potatoes, are among his yearly 
products. ‘ The Man of Uz,’ in his best 
estate, could not do better than this. Mr. 
Brigham himself is got up with a breadth of 
beam, and in a style of magnificence propor¬ 
tionate to the extent of his possessions and 
agricultural products—he standing 6 feet 4 
in his boots, and weighing, by one of Fair¬ 
banks’patent balances, 300 lbs. precisely.” 
RAIN IN JULY AND AUGUST. 
The following statement, showing the 
amount of rain which fell in the different 
States of the Union during the months of 
July and August, we copy from the Washing¬ 
ton Globe. We presume it was compiled 
from the records in the Smithsonian Insti¬ 
tute : 
In the following statement we have 
grouped adjoining States and sections, where 
the amount of rain which fell was nearly the 
same. The figures giving the amount of rain 
are intended to represent, the average, accord¬ 
ing to observations taken in different parts 
of each State : 
In Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, 
it was very dry during both July and August. 
Rain in July, one and a half inches ; in Au¬ 
gust, one half inch. 
In Massachusetts, Connecticut, andRhode- 
Island, plenty of rain fell during the month 
of July, nearly or quite up to the average, 
but hardly any in August. Rain in July, 
three and a half inches; in August, half an 
inch. 
In New-York State in July, two and a 
half inches of rain fell—about an average. 
During the month of August there was but 
little rain in the northern section—half an 
inch ; in the southern, one inch ; and in the 
city one and a half inches. 
In New-Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania, 
there was no drouth in July. Rain in July, 
three and a half inches ; in August one inch. 
In western Pennsylnania, Ohio and Mich¬ 
igan, rain, during July, fell one and a half 
inches—in some places less ; in August, one 
half inch. 
The amount of rain wihch fell in Maryland 
and northern Virginia, according to the ta¬ 
bles, is nearly the same. Some parts of 
Maryland suffered from the drouth more 
severely than others. Rain in July, one and 
a half inches; in August one and a half 
inches. 
In both North and South Carolina there 
was plenty of rain during the two months, 
and the papers in both States during the pre¬ 
valence of the dry weather complained of 
too much rain in July. Rain in July, five 
inches ; in August, four and a half inches— 
nearly an average. 
In lower Georgia, Florida, and Louisiana, 
there was no drouth in either the month of 
July or August, but rather more than the 
average amount of rain fell. Rain in July, 
five to six inches ; in August, five to six 
inches. 
In Upper Georgia, Alabama, and Upper 
Mississippi, a fair amount of rain fell in both 
months. Rain in July, two inches and a 
half; in August three inches. 
In Lower Mississippi and Texas, during 
both months, abundant rain; very profuse 
rain in July, five to six inches ; in August 
five to six inches. 
Rain in Tennessee, in July, two and a half 
inches ; in August, half an inch. 
In Kentucky, during both months, the 
drouth was very great, and the crops suf¬ 
fered severely, though a fair amount of rain 
fell. Rain in July, one and a half inches, in 
August, one and a half inches. 
In Indiana, during both months, there was 
a fair amount of rain in most parts of the 
State, but not up to the average. Rain in 
July, two and a half inches; irregular, in 
August, two and aTialf inches. 
In Illinois Missouri, and' southern Iowa, 
extending west to Fort Kearny, and taking in 
western Arkansas, but little rain fell in either 
July or August. Rain in July, one inch; in 
August, one inch. 
In northern Iowa, rain in July, four inches; 
in August three inches ; plenty of rain. 
In Wisconsin there was great abundance of 
rain, more than an average in July. Rain in 
July, in some parts, eightinches ; other parts, 
four and a half inches; at the Falls of St. 
Anthony, five inches; in August, from two 
and a half to three inches 
KEEPING SWEET POTATOES. 
George D. Norris of New-Market, in the 
northern part of Alabama, and within a few 
miles of the Tennessee line, where the ther¬ 
mometer sometimes sinks to zero, and again 
rises so as to render fire uncomfortable, has 
been for many years past very successful in 
keeping the sweet potato. He expresses 
the opinion in the Farmer’s Companion, that 
sweet potatoes may be kept as well at the 
north as at the south. He does not usually 
lose a peck in 400 bushels. His method is 
in substance as follows : Provide a good 
open shed, on a dry, well-drained piece of 
ground, around which a goood trench is cut. 
As soon as the autumnal frosts have killed 
the leaves, carefully dig the potatoes, hand¬ 
ling them as if eggs, and make piles of them 
under the shed, each pile containing say ten 
or twenty bushels. The separate piles are, 
for the sake of removing a portion as wanted, 
during warm weather in winter, without dis¬ 
turbing the rest. Immediately cover each 
pile thickly with good wheat straw (not hay,) 
as light injures them, and cover the straw 
, with a foot of earth. The shed keeps the 
whole dry. This is the whole process. It is 
found much better than packing in barrels 
with sand, which retains the moisture and 
rots them. The moisture is absorbed by the 
straw. They should never be bruised. The 
most successful keeper of the common pota¬ 
to we ever knew, always covered his large 
heaps (seventy or eighty bushels) with straw 
packed a foot thick, which absorbs the un¬ 
necessary moisture, so that he rarely lost a 
peck in one of these large heaps. Only three 
or four inches of earth was needed outside 
the straw; and if he had covered the whole 
with a shed, doubtless the roots would have 
been still more secure from any danger. 
Country Gentleman. 
Curing Sheep Skins with Wool on. —Take 
one teaspoonfull of alum and two of saltpe¬ 
ter ; pulverize and mix well together, then 
sprinkle the powder on the flesh side of the 
skin, and lay the two flesh sides together, 
leaving the wool outside. Then fold up the 
skins as tightly as you can and put them in a 
dry place. In two or three days, as soon as 
they are dry, scrape them with a blunt knife 
till clean and supple. This completes the 
process, and makes a most excellent saddle 
cover. Other skins which you desire to cure 
with fur on, may be treated in the same 
way. _ 
A Large Yield of Corn. —The “ Elkton 
(Md.) Democrat” says that at Battle Swamp, 
G. J. Fisher, Esq., has raised 1,600 bushels 
of corn, on a sixteen acre lot, in that neigh¬ 
borhood, which two years ago was a sedge 
field. The lot had guano applied to it three 
times in that period; the first application was 
200 lbs., the second 150, the third 400 lbs. to 
the acre, making in all 750 lbs. The corn 
was a white gourd seed, planted two and a 
half and three feet apart, with four stocks in 
a hill, and matured early. 
You had better be poisoned in your blood 
than your principles. 
