360 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
interim ^gnatlfurisf. 
New-York, Wednesday, Fet>. 14. 
Answer to Inquiries about Back Numbers, &c.— 
Back numbers from ttie beginning of the present volume 
can still be supplied at 4 cents per number. 
Volumes XI and XII can be supplied at $1 per volume 
unbound; or $1.50 per volume bound. 
The first ten volumes (new edition) can be furnished 
bound at $1 25 per volume, or the complete set of ten vol¬ 
umes for $10. Price of the first twelve volumes $13. 
No new' edition of the volumes above the tenth will be 
issued, as the work is too large to admit of stereotyping. 
THE ACORN SQUASH 
Alas ! for the glory of all things earthly, 
the flowers fade and so do the squashes. 
We have reached the last sample of the 
goodly pile of Acorns, laid in for our winter 
stores. The attacks of the housewife were 
far more dangerous than the rot; and the 
surviving Marrows tell more of her prefer¬ 
ences than of the poor keeping-qualities of 
the Acorns. The 24th of January is a re¬ 
spectable age for so good a vegetable. After 
three years’ trial, we think this squash a lit¬ 
tle improvement upon the Marrow in quality, 
though its shape is not quite so desirable. 
It is a little more solid, fine-grained, and 
mealy, and quite as sweet. It is the perfec- 
tion of “ pumpkin pies and ought to be an 
“ institution ” as universal as the Thanks¬ 
giving of the Yankees. It is quite as hardy 
as the Marrow; the only difficulty with 
either being the bugs, for which there is a 
sure remedy. 
THE LARGEST PIG IN AMERICA. 
Mr. Edward A. Lawrence, of Bay Side, 
Flushing, L. I., killed a pig last week which 
weighed dressed 981 lbs. This is an aston¬ 
ishing weight when we consider that he was 
only two years old past, had very fine, thin 
white hair, and was extremely fine in his 
head and limbs. He measured from the tip 
of his nose along his side to the end of the 
rump, 8 feet 5 inches ; girthed 6 feet 4 inches 
round the heart; and was 4 feet H inches 
high. This pig, Mr. Lawrence informs us, 
was of no particular breed that he knows of, 
but came from stock his father had long bred 
on the farm. We have often seen these 
swine, and they resemble the best York¬ 
shires. They were undoubtedly of English 
origin. 
A Word about Bread. —Last week a 
copied article upon bread, found its way into 
our columns, page 346, without the deserved 
criticism whicli should have accompanied it. 
The idea of producing 520 lbs. of bread from 
240 lbs. of flour is all “ French moonshine.” 
To contend that this 520 lbs. of bread con¬ 
tains any more nutriment than 360 lbs.—the 
amount usually obtained from 240 lbs. of 
flour—is only asserting that the extra 160 lbs. 
of water absorbed in the new process is nu- 
tricious. We took occasion to explode this 
“ Humbug,” on page 168 of last volume, and 
it was purely an oversight that the article 
now referred to appeared, though we are 
sorry to say it has gone the rounds of the 
press quite extensively. 
Reported, for the American Agriculturist. 
THE BEDFORD FARMERS’ CLUB, 
MAKING BUTTER VS. SELLING MILE. 
The Bedford Farmers’ .Club held their 
monthly meeting on Friday, Jan. 29th, at 
Katonah. The subject of discussion was, 
“ The Relative Profits of Selling Milk and 
Making Butter.” Previous to the discussion, 
the President, Mr. Dickinson, informed the 
Society that their new library was now in 
possession of over 100 volumes ; 40 having 
been presented by Judge Jay and his son, 
John Jay, and several other contributors. 
It was then resolved that a suitable build¬ 
ing be erected at Katonah, for holding pub¬ 
lic meetings, having a room to be appropria¬ 
ted to the use of the library. Already a 
large sum has been subscribed towards the 
stock, which is to consist of $10 shares. 
On the subject of discussion, Mr. Dickin¬ 
son said that he had been selling milk from 
his dairy for six or seven years; but for 
two or three years past, he had been negli¬ 
gent of keeping accounts of receipts and 
expenditures. His cows, however, paid 
about $60 a year, at our present prices of 
2i cts. per quart, in summer, and 3£ in win¬ 
ter. Mr. Dickinson spoke in favor of butter- 
making, since it allows the cows time to rest 
in winter, whereas milking as long as possi¬ 
ble causes them to sink in flesh. Mr. D. is 
acquainted with several farmers who are 
becoming sick of the milk business, in con¬ 
sequence of the loss on cows, a source of 
general complaint among farmers in this 
section. 
Mr. Holmes thought butter-making the 
most profitable, and proceeded to read some 
extracts from the American Agriculturist 
and Genesee Farmer, in support of his argu¬ 
ments, which were very strong. Mr. H. 
then gave a very clear account of his receipts 
for two or three years past. He keeps 12 
cows, besides two for the use of his family. 
In 1852, each cow and calf paid $31 56. The 
same season he got $9 for pork, which he 
estimates at $40 50 for each cow. In 1853, 
each cow paid $46 00 ; and this season, from 
10 cows, he sold 1296£ lbs. butter, and fed 
1000 lbs. of pork, worth $6 per cwt. 
Mr. Walker said, under existing circum¬ 
stances, in his section, he was decidedly in 
favor of selling milk, the cows kept by the 
the farmers generally being unsuitable for 
butter and cheese making. For instance, of 
60 cows kept on Judge Jay’s farm, many 
good milkers were ill adapted to butter mak¬ 
ing, while they were good for making cheese. 
In 1853, they had a very poor lot of cows, 
averaging each about $60, the extra feed 
costing about $200. To insure profits from 
butter-making, you must have either Ayr¬ 
shire or Devons from which to breed calves, 
and in this way keep up your slock. 
Mr. S. M. Miller said that according to 
last year’s accounts, his proceeds from sell¬ 
ing milk were $55 on each cow. 
He thought cows did not suffer in value 
from selling milk, if they were properly 
taken care of during the winter, and not 
milked too long. With the Connecticut farm¬ 
ers it was agreed that carrots were the 
best food for milk cows, but that they were 
very expensive, much more so than turnips. 
After some further remarks about the Li¬ 
brary, the meeting adjourned. 
United States Agricultural Society.— 
The third annual meeting of this Society wall 
be held in Washington, D. C., on the 28th of 
the present month. 
We would direct attention to the advertise¬ 
ment of the Wool Grower and Stock Regis¬ 
ter. 
CHEMISTRY 
FOR SMALL AND LARGE BOYS AND GIRLS 
CHAPTER V. 
This series of articles will—as happened 
last week—sometimes be interrupted until the 
lecture season is over. 
H 
C 
O 
N 
S 
P 
Cl 
Oa 
K 
Na 
Mg 
Fe 
A1 
Si 
Mn 
53. 
When we wish to 
describe the 
com- 
position of a compound body, it is often con¬ 
venient to simply write down signs or sym¬ 
bols for the atoms, thus : HO stands for 
water, and shows that one atom of Hy-dro- 
gen and one atom of Ox-y-gen are united to¬ 
gether to produce water. N0 2 (that isNOO) 
stands for air ; S0 3 (that is SOOO) for oil 
of vitriol; NaO,C0 2 (that is NaO,COO) for 
our cooking Soda, &c. Chemists have a 
short symbol for all the known atoms. These 
will be seen in the table below. 
54. We have as yet considered the atoms 
outof whichbodies are made as all being little 
round bodies, though we can not tell exactly 
what is their form, nor whether the different 
kinds of atoms have different shapes or 
forms. We have good reason for believing, 
however, that they differ very much in size 
and weight. Thus, the hydrogen atoms in 
box H are supposed to be the smallest that 
exist, and the weight of all the others is 
reckoned by comparing them with H. Each 
C atom weighs six times as much as an H 
atom ; an O atom eight times as much as H; 
an N atom fourteen times as much ; a P 
atom thirty-two times as much, &c. 
55. We will now give you a list of all the 
different kinds of atoms that have yet been 
found. Do not be at all frightened by this 
list of hard names, for we shall not need to 
refer to them all again. Indeed we intro¬ 
duce them here partly as a matter of curios¬ 
ity, for the first four constitute the great 
mass of all animal and vegetable substances, 
and the first fifteen constitute or make up 
our soils, rocks, and all things we usually 
see. The first column gives the name ; the 
second gives the symbol, which we generally 
use instead of the name ; and the third col¬ 
umn gives the comparative weight—or, in 
other words, it tells us how many times 
heavier these atoms are than the Hy-dro- 
gen atoms (58). All the substances are me 
