81 
AMERICAN A(jK IC TJ LT URI ST. 
LONE STAR. 
Sire, Yeraiont Black Hawk ; g. sire Sherman Morgan; g. g. sire Justin Morgan. Dam, a black 
Morgan mare. Lone Star was foaled Spring of 1847, the property of Amos Simmons, of Glen’s 
Falls, N. Y. Now owned by C. C. Thurston, Suffield, Ct. 
TIM BUNKER ON AN OLD SAW. 
THE WINTER WHEAT FIELDS 
Need some attention at this season. Are 
any of the ditches or dead furrows clogged 
up so that water stands over the ground, let 
them be cleared at once. A stroke or two 
of the hoe or spade may save you a bushel 
of wheat—if it be but a quart, it will pay for 
the time. One day upon a ten acre field 
now —not next week, or at some “ con¬ 
venient season,” will be labor well expend¬ 
ed. 
Are there bare spots here and there, pro¬ 
duced by snow-banks or Winter-kill, do not 
leave them to lie useless for a whole season, 
or worse than useless, the receptable of 
foul weeds. We have often practised suc¬ 
cessfully, and recommended to others, to 
scatter Spring wheat upon all such bare 
spots. If this is done on a cold morning, 
while the ground is pretty well filled with 
water, the seed sown will fall into the deep 
frost cracks, and be covered sufficiently on 
thawing to secure the germination of most 
of the kernels. It is well, however, to sow 
pretty thickly when the covering of the seed 
is left wholly to the frost. If the soil does 
not crack open by frost sufficiently, the seed 
may be put in by hoe, harrow or drill. 
Around the borders of a field, a harrow may 
be used ; in smaller plots, a hoe will answer; 
though wherever practicable, a seed-drill is 
better than either. This whole method may 
seem to some to be of little account, but it 
is not so. We have known hundreds of 
bushels of fair wheat grown in this way, 
with no extra expense for plowing or mow¬ 
ing. Early varieties of Spring wheat will 
often come to maturity at the same time 
with the Winter among which it is sown, and 
if a little later, these spots can be left for 
after harvesting. The mixed portion, though 
not quite as valuable as the unmixed W T inter 
wheat, will still serve admirably for home 
use, or will sell but little below the usual 
market rates. Where so much may be 
produced with so little outlay it should be 
looked to now. Wheat-raisers, please try 
this the present season, and report the 
results. 
BARLEY (MALT) SPROUTS FOR COWS. 
In answer to the communication on this sub¬ 
ject, on page 58, Mr. Clarkson, of Milford, Pa., 
writes, that in the Old Country he had much ex¬ 
perience in feeding malt sprouts, and they were 
there considered valuable for stock, and that flock 
masters bought all they could for their sheep. 
There are two sorts, one called dunge, which is 
much used as manure for turnips. The other, the 
screenings from malt, Mr. C. uses thus : A quan¬ 
tity of it is put into a tub, and as much boiling 
water poured over it as it will be likely to absorb 
it is even covered to keep the steam and heat in. 
To a bushel of this is added one well-filled bushel 
of cut hay, and one bushel of cut straw—barley 
straw being considered best. After thorough mix 
ing, it is ted to cows, and they are afterwards sup¬ 
plied with four to eight quarts of finely cut turnips 
or other roots. He adds : “ This plan I have fol¬ 
lowed ‘Winter after Winter, and my father be¬ 
fore me, and so far from being hurtful, I have 
found it very valuable, and to produce a large in¬ 
crease of milk.” 
Mr. Editor: —You need not think that any 
of my neighbors have grown envious of my 
getting the premiums, and rode me out on a 
rail, or on one of the above articles, tooth 
side up. And you needn’t suppose I am 
going to write about a saw, though it’s a very 
convenient tool about a farmer’s workshop. 
But you see, there is a saying, “ Penny wise, 
pound foolish,” that is always a see-sawing 
up and down in some folks’ mouths, that 
they call an old saw, as they do all such like 
proverbs. I expect they call ’em so, because 
of the tettering process which such sayings 
are always undergoing. There is a deal of 
pith in ’em as a rule, though they are made 
to apologize for pretty much all sorts of 
shortcomings. I am now going to bring out 
this old proverb, “ Penny wise and pound 
foolish,” and putting it on one end of the 
plank, I mean to give some ol the Hooker- 
town people an airing on the other. 
I wish some of our folks up here could 
look at themselves and their farming in a 
looking-glass, and just see what sort of work 
they are making. You see every man thinks 
every man penny wise but himself. The 
looking-glass would often bring ’em right. 
Uncle Jotham Sparrowgrass I s’pose never 
spent the value of fifty cents in his life for 
seeds of any kind before he went in for that 
China potato last year. He could not see, 
for the life of him, but what one kind of 
seed was about as good as another. The 
onion seed, and carrot and parsnip seed that 
Mrs. Sparrowgrass always saved and stored 
away in an old basket in the pantry, al¬ 
ways came up and bore something, though 
the onions might have been mistaken for 
leeks, they were so little, and the other 
roots were hardly big enough to make a 
spile for the cider barrel. Everything else 
in his garden was just so. The parsnips, 
cabbage and beets were all crossed, and run 
out as they call it, and there was hardly a 
decent vegetable in his garden for want of 
good seed. He could not afford to buy it 
when he had it in the house—used to talk 
about hurting his wife’s feelings if he should 
not use the seed she had saved. That would 
have been less of a joke, you see, if he had 
always been careful of her feelings on other 
occasions. Well, you see, when he read 
those advertisements in that yellow-covered 
literature last Spring, he altered his mind 
some about potato seed, and thought he 
would put in for a dozen at ten dollars. He 
was going to be a pound wise man, and show 
his neighbors some potatoes that were pota¬ 
toes. Did not he catch it, though? The 
Sparrowgrass family have hardly had pota¬ 
toes on the table since. It is said they set 
bad on Uncle Jotham’s stomach. 
Now you see I tried this planting of 
seeds gathered from the odds and ends of 
the garden, for rising of forty years, and 
think it is a penny wise business—my onions 
used to be scullions, my cabbages did not 
head well, and the tap-roots would often run 
to seed the first year. Last Spring, you see, 
when I went down to the city to sell my 
beef cattle, I went to a first-rate agricultural 
store, and spent about ten dollars in garden 
seeds. It was those seed, as well as the 
subsoil plowing and the manuring, that ena 
bled me to take the premiums at the Fair 
Seth Twiggs came along the day I was put¬ 
ting them into the cellar, and said : “Waal. 
Squire Bunker, I dew declare, I never saw 
such a sight of garden sass going into youi 
cellar afore !” 
Seth was right. I never had such roots or 
cabbage heads. It was fun to pull them. 
And I have pretty much made up my mind 
that seed is one of the chief points in good 
farming. I think there is a difference of one 
quarter in the crop between good seed and 
poor. So, vvhen I went down to the city 
this Spring, 1 took time by the forelock, ana 
