AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
169 
Wild Turkies. —The inquiry of the editor 
of the Poultry Chronicle is received, and will 
be replied to soon through the columns of 
the American Agriculturist. 
Eight Acres ok Plastering. —A subscri¬ 
ber says that the plastering of the Antioch 
College, at Yellow Springs, Ohio, (see ad¬ 
vertisement,) covers a surface equal to eight 
acres. 
The Vine Disease is making sad havoc— 
if sad it can be called—throughout most of 
the vine-growing countries of Europe. Re¬ 
cent intelligence shows that the blight has 
been far more prevalent than at any former 
period. 
Potatoes on Half an Acre. —The Hart¬ 
ford Courant says that an Irishman, near 
Belchertown, Mass., has raised 300 bushels 
of potatoes the past season, on half an acre 
of peat swamp. Evening Post, please make 
a note of this. 
The Connecticut Valley Farmer lias 
changed hands and place of publication. It 
will hereafter be published monthly, at Am¬ 
herst, Mass., by the Editor, Professor Nash. 
The price (formerly 50 cents) hereafter is to 
be $1 a year. We wish much success to 
this efficient co-laborer in the field of agri¬ 
cultural improvement. 
Cream Hill Agricultural School. —We 
have received the annual catalogue of this 
school, located at West Cornwall, Conn. 
The plan of the school is to receive a limited 
number of pupils into the family of the 
teachers, and to give them instruction in the 
various branches of science, and at t he same 
time, out-door exercise and instruction upon 
the farm. We can not speak at present so 
much from personal observation of the ad¬ 
vantages of the school; but hope to look 
into them more particularly when our usual 
farm visits or lectures shall call us that way. 
The school is under the care of Messrs. 
Samuel W. Gold, M. D., and Theodore S. 
Gold, M. A. 
BOOK NOTICES. 
We have just read a new book, published 
by J. C. Derby, of New-York,entitled “The 
Newsboy author unknown. We found it 
so interesting that we finished its 557 pages 
at two sittings. It is written in good style, 
is well adapted to awaken generous and no¬ 
ble sentiments, and, in short, pays for read¬ 
ing—which is saying much for a now-a-days’ 
book. Those influenced by our opinion will 
secure and peruse the book. Price $1 25. 
THE WIDE-AWAKE GIFT, and Know-Nothing To¬ 
ken, lor 1855. By “ One of 'em.” Boston: Phillips, 
Sampson & Co. New-York: J. C. Derby. 
Whatever objections one may have to the 
origin of this book, he can certainly have 
none to the book itself. It is thoroughly 
American in its character, being mostly com¬ 
piled from the works of the most eminent 
writers and orators of our country, and con¬ 
tains, among other things, the Constitution 
of the United States. It is neatly bound in 
cloth, and ornamented with a full-size por¬ 
trait of Daniel Webster. We do not admire 
the title; though that is a matter of little 
consequence. It is pleasant, in these days, 
to get hold of a book containing something 
more than splendid titles and pompous pre¬ 
faces. 
Advertisements. —In outadvertising col¬ 
umns our readers will often find matters of 
special interest. In this number we refer 
them particularly to the advertisements of 
Andre Leroy’s nurseries, at Angers, France, 
and to the poultry of Mr. Plaisted, Great 
Falls, N. H. We would also call the atten¬ 
tion of gardeners and horticulturists to the 
one addressed “ To Horticulturists,” by S., 
at Kingsessing Post-office, Philadelphia Co., 
Penn. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
NEW JERSEY FARMING. 
It does not require a great deal of very 
acute observation to discover that many im¬ 
portant points in farming need to be carried 
into practice, in order to place New-Jersey 
farming and her farmers where they should 
be ; and to draw attention to this fact, I can 
not speak of it as a system, so much as the 
want of all system. Occupying as she does 
a commanding situation between two of the 
most important markets in the world, one on 
each side of her, she ought to be fully up to 
the limes in farming, if nothing else. Hence 
the propriety of more liberal investments to 
secure to herself the benefits of this trade. 
The lower parts of the State, bordering 
upon the Philadelphia market, are generally 
understood to be in better condition than the 
more northern counties, owing to the pres¬ 
ence of marl beds, the great value of which 
is beginning to ^be understood and appre¬ 
ciated. We have in our counties (Morris, 
Sussex, and Warren) no marl of much con¬ 
sequence ; but we have what is perhaps fully 
equal to it, and which may be easily obtained 
at a reasonable cost—I mean lime and 
muck, two good fertilizers which, if judi¬ 
ciously applied, would cause nature to smile 
upon us and yield her increase abundantly 
—and when I say judicious in this case, 1 
mean liberal. Farmers generally do not de¬ 
vote as much strength of purse and labor 
upon the collection of manures, and the 
making of compost heaps, as they should; not 
for the sake of pleasing others, but for their 
own profit. There are few farmers but can 
testify to the value of very rich land, as they 
are ahvays loud in its praise. As an illus¬ 
tration, I may mention my own garden this 
season. I have been for two or three years 
enriching it by the most liberal application 
of manures, for a particular purpose. Last 
spring I planted cabbage in different parts of 
it, and raised heads that weigh from 15 to 
20 lbs. or more. I have sold the most of 
them for 12& cents per head, and have some 
for which I am offered 1 cent per pound. 
Besides the great and satisfactory increase 
of crops, the land is easier worked and much 
more to be relied upon for a paying crop. 
All these are not trifling advantages, and al¬ 
though it is but a repetition of a familiar 
fact, yet there is too small a proportion of 
farmers who realize .these advantages. 
Every practical man should, therefore, urge 
a liberal system of composting manures, as 
the farmers’ true source of wealth. 
Another point in New-Jersey farming 
worthy of consideration, is the products of the 
soil. All lands are not grass lands, neither 
are all lands grain or fruit lands. Neither 
can the one always be conveniently adapted 
to the other, and at a reasonable expense. 
Any attempt at this, with ordinary means, is 
what I call ill-directed labor. Grain, if your 
land is in good heart, is always a cash crop, 
and, at modern prices, certainly a paying 
one. Instance the continued high prices of 
bread stuffs. Buckwheat we may quote as 
worthy of particular note ; it is a grain that 
grows on very ordinary soil, and yet it is in 
demandat $4 per hundred pounds in flour— 
here in the very heart of a buckwheat grow¬ 
ing country. 
But ilie great point wherein I consider 
New-Jersey farmers behind the times, is in 
the raising of fruit. All along the great 
rail-way and river thoroughfares of New- 
York State, and, indeed, the Western States 
at large, particularly Ohio, Illinois, Michi¬ 
gan, and Indiana, they understand this mat¬ 
ter, and with the genuine go-ahead-ativeness 
of true born Yankees, they are planting im¬ 
mense orchards of every kind of fruit adapted 
to the climate; and while a Jerseyman 
plants a peach orchard or two and then stops, 
these wide-awake Yankees will walk right 
into the pockets of consumers, and laugh and 
grow fat on Jersey indifference. 
If any State in the Union is favorably lo¬ 
cated for the profitable growing of fruit, it is 
New-Jersey—her soil is perfectly congenial 
to the growth of fruit. We would advise 
Jerseymen to delay the liberal planting of 
fruit trees no longer ; but to avail themselves 
of every opportunity at hand to compete 
with their prosperous neighbors. W. D. 
Morristown, New-Jersey. 
For the American Agriculturist, 
VERMONT VS. CALIFORNIA. 
* * * In looking over your paper 1 noticed 
an article relating to California products. I 
am sure we need not go out of old Vermont 
to beat them. I raised, the present year, 
six squashes, from two seeds, weighing 800 
pounds—the smallest weighing 86, the larg¬ 
est, 1401 pounds. Also, watermelons nearly 
as large as the Californian’s. I would be 
be very happy to forward seeds by mail to 
any one of your readers who desires to cul¬ 
tivate them. John McKee. 
Bristol, Addison Co , Vt. 
Water Ram.—A correspondent, from Hal¬ 
ifax, N. C., thus writes us in regard to one 
on his premises : 
1 am satisfied that no ram has ever worked 
more successfully than mine. It is placed 
about forty feet from the spring, which has 
a fall of ten feet, and a copious supply of 
water—as more escapes from the spring, by 
another source, than goes to supply the ram. 
The discharge-pipe is 116 feet in length, half 
an inch bore, and the place where the water 
is discharged, at the rate of sixty gallons an 
hour, is 70 feet perpendicular above the bend 
of the ram. It has seldom stopped during 
the two years it has been at work, and only 
at such times as the ravine was filled by 
heavy rains, or when the flange of the pipe 
was out. 
