AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
163 
FOR I HR COYS AND GIRLS. 
(The whole of our paper is designed for younger as well 
as older people ; the following is for the Boys and Girls 
only ) 
Answers to Problems 1 and 2. We have received an 
unexpectedly large number of answers to each of the 
problems given on page 138—a whole drawer full of them, 
and with a single exception the answers were all correct 
afid some very well executed drawings have been fur¬ 
nished, showing more artistic skill than we had credited 
to so many of our younger readers. We give engraving’s 
of the first answer received. Several received after¬ 
wards were even better than this. Will not some of our 
ingenious young readers send original contributions for 
i!us column. 
ANSWER TO PROBLEM I, PAGE 138. 
My ground is divided, mv tenants at work, 
And he’ll profit most who does not labor shirk, 
So let them toil on till cabbages rise, 
And carrots and turnips to gladden their eyes, 
Gooseberries and Currants, and Raspberries too, 
Shall amply repay the work they may do. 
ANSWER TO PROBLEM II. PAGE 138. 
Here’s my thanks my young friends, for your kindly aid, 
Twenty two answers to my questions were made 
By young “Agriculturists who by thousands are counted, 
The trouble with my lodgers is entirely surmounted. 
They have all gone to work with a hearty good will, 
Each one his own plot with vegetables will fill, 
Save the ground where the trees grow, which they will 
hoe with much care, 
And if you’ll call round in Autumn the fruit they will 
share. William. 
Correct answers have also been received from : “ An 
Old Boy,” 72 years old Stamford, Ct.; Jas. L. Gerrish, 
N. H.; D. W. Gore, Bradford Co., Pa.; Merrill Foote. 
Lancaster; J. D. P., Belvidere ; A. Henry, City ; Geo. 
E. Steele, Kingsville; M. S. Osgood, W., N. Y >.; F. M. S. 
P . N. Y ; J. S. B., L. I. ; G. W. Barnand, Ct.; A Sub¬ 
scriber, La Salle ; R. W. Coy, N. Y.; D. M. Goodrich, 
Owego ; J. T. Briggs, F., Vt. ; J. R. Dowling, M , Ohio; 
K., Union Co., N. J.; P. S.; Franklin Briggs, W., N. Y.; 
E.J. W., Hartford Co., Pa.; John Fleming, R., N. J.; 
O. W. Guy, Oxford ; L W. N., Jr., C., K. H.; L’ester 
Winfield, G. M., N. Y. ; Samuel J. Beatty, Washington 
Co . Pa. ; Alexander H. McKelvy, Warren Co., Pa.; C. 
5 Pillsbury, N. H.; Walter A. Carpenter, Min. Ter.; 
Mary Jane Esson, Canada West, &c. 
NEW PROBLEMS. 
Problem 3.— How can 10 trees be planted so that there 
shall be 5 rows and 4 trees in each row 1 
Problem 4.—How can 12 trees be planted so as to have 
6 rows, and 4 trees in each row ? 
Problem 5.—How can 19 trees be planted so as to have 
9 rows, and yet 5 trees in each row 1 
Problem 6.—How can 27 trees be planted so as to have 
t rows, and 6 trees in each row 1 
WSiat is Stereotyping -1 
A boy reader, “ out West,” writes that he sees that the 
Agriculturist is stereotyped, “but having been brought 
up almost in the Western woods, he does not understand 
what the word means, and wishes the editor would ex’ 
plain it to him.” He also says he frequently reads of 
“ stereotyped farming,” and does not understand the con¬ 
nection of farming printing implied in using the same 
word for both. He begs us “ to excuse the simplicity of 
the question as he is very young.” Certainly we will, and 
it will give us great pleasure to answer, in this column, 
a multitude of questions from Boys and Gills, though, as 
stated above, we are trying to write the articles so 
plainly that our young readers can all unuerstand and bf. 
■nterested in every page. 
Stereotyped, means made solid or fixed. Thus, in oidi- 
uary printing every letter is cast upon the end of a bit of 
type metal about an inch in length. These tvpe letters, 
are set together in proper order to form the words and 
lines, with little shorter nieces of metal between the 
words. When the type is all put together for a page, it is 
fastened into an iron frame, called a chase, and several of 
these pages are put together in what is called a form. 
They are then placed upon a printing press, when a sheet 
of white paper is laid on and a heavy plate pressed upon 
it, or a roller run over it, which presses down the sheet 
and causes it to take up a little ink previously put upon 
the types. 
But the heavy press sometimes knocks some of the let¬ 
ters out of place, and where a great many sheets are 
printed the face, or head of the type, gets worn down, as 
the same letters are used in successive numbers of a pa¬ 
per. Further, when the types are once taken apart, they 
must all be set up again, if more copies are wanted. 
These difficulties are all avoided by stereotyping the 
pages. Thus, when a page of types is all ready to be 
printed from, the stereotyper takes a thin mortar, made of 
burned plaster of Paris and water, and spreads a coat of 
it over the face of the type. This soon hardens, and is 
then lifted off, and shows upon its lower side an exact im¬ 
pression or mold of the whole page, including all the let¬ 
ters, dots, punctuation marks, &c. After thoroughly dry¬ 
ing this plaster mould, a thin layer of melted type metal 
is cast upon it. When this cools and is taken off, it shows- 
an exact face of letters just like the original page of types, 
the lower ends of the letters being all joined to the thin 
plate of metal, so that none of them can be moved out of 
place in printing from them. There are, of course, 24 
such plates for each number of a paper like this—one for 
each page. The pressman lays these plates upon wood¬ 
en blocks, about an inch thick, and prints from them in¬ 
stead of from the loose types. When he has printed all 
the sh< ets wanted at one time, he packs the plates away 
in a box until mo»e copies are wanted. 
You thus see that by keeping these plates, say of this 
present July number, we can at any time, even a dozen 
or twenty years hence, get them out of the box and print 
more copies to supply any call for back numbers. We 
are now sorry we did not keep stere'otype plates of form¬ 
er volumes, as a great many of them are called for, and 
we cannot hereafter print any of the first fifteen volumes 
without setting up all the types again. But when you 
look at this page, or any of this or subsequent volumes, 
you can always think that there is packed away in a box 
in a fire-proof vault, under one of the streets of this city, a 
thin plate of metal, having upon one of its sides all the let¬ 
ters, figures or pictures, &c., upon the page yon are read¬ 
ing, and that the printer could, in half an hour, get out a 
plate and print you a new page without stopping to ar¬ 
range the types 
“ Stereotyped farming,” is that which, like the type in 
the plate, is fixed, and is always in the same style—with 
no improvement. 
Electrotype plates are similar to stereotype plates, only 
they have a thin coat of copper upon the face of the let¬ 
ters. Instead of casting the copper in the mold by melt¬ 
ing it, it is first dissolved in an acid to form blue vitriol, 
and then it is cast down upon the mold by the electricity 
from an electric battery. Hence, the name electro-type. 
The copper-face tj pes' wear longer, and print a little bet¬ 
ter. 
Into which are thrown all sorts of paragraphs—such as 
Notes and Replies to Correspondents, with Useful or 
Interesting Extracts from their Letters , together with Glean¬ 
ings of various kinds from various sources. ^^‘‘The print¬ 
ers always have access to this Basket when they “ have 
nothing else to do.” _ 
Ensprovedt Tools anel Faraiiiug'.-»S. II. C., of 
Penn., wishes to Know if the tools, to which we alluded 
in our January issue, will work well in somewhat stony 
ground. He also speaks of his success, or want of it in 
farming, and of his edification under our past instructions. 
As his case will answer for thousands of Eastern farmers, 
we quote-his own language. “ I have taken the Agri¬ 
culturist for two or three years, and aside from the pleas¬ 
ure of reading it, I am doubtful if I have received any 
considerable benefit. In the'manner of cultivation, when 
possible, I try to approximate its directions, when 
clearly expressed, but I continue to raise 25 to 30 bushels 
of corn, and about as many oats to the acre. True I have 
not commenced ditching, for I owe and have not got the 
tin So I keep on receding and working hoping “ some¬ 
thing will turn up,” though strongly of opinion that I had 
better sell here, and find a prairie farm, West. For, tak¬ 
ing my own experience in contrast with nearly every ex¬ 
periment you record, I am no farmer at all, and probably 
never shall be, for at the rate I am gaining property now, 
it will be time to die long before I shall be able to man¬ 
age one hundred acres as you would call well; yet I 
get along aboid as well as any of my neighbors, and a 
good deal better than many, though every dollar’s worth 
of produce costs me one dollar twenty-five cents in labor, 
taking wages I can get in other business as a basis.” 
Remarks— This is the old story touchingly told of the 
skinning system—little manure on much land—small 
crops growing “smallerby degrees and beautifully less ;”— 
an empty purse, and emigration. Farming must gener¬ 
ally be unprofitable, where no more than thirty bushels of 
com to the acre are produced, and it increases in profit¬ 
ableness, not as one extends his acres, but as he in 
creases the amount of production per acre. Evidently 
our friend has not yet full faith in the principles of hus¬ 
bandry we advocate, and so does not practice what we 
preach. He probably has run in debt for a much larger 
quantity of land than he has any use for, and has one 
half or more of his borrowed capital, where he has to pay 
interest and taxes, without getting a cent in return. He 
wants either less land, or more capital to work what he 
now has. He should either sell a part to raise the 
requisite amount, or hire it, if passible. He wants more 
manure, more labor and bigger crops. He should first 
endeavor to raise sixty bushels of corn on one acre, in¬ 
stead of taking two for it. Put on manure enough to do 
that, if it takes all in the yard and stables 
He can not bn careful enough of the resources of the 
farm for making manures. Are the cattle all stabled 
through the winter, and during nights in summer, to save 
both solid and liquid manure ? Are there no muck mines 
within reach? Twenty cords of manure may be made 
every year for every horse, cow or ox, upon the farm, 
and this spread upon an acre of ground, and plowed in 
six or eight inches deep, will raise the production above 
the old stereotyped crop of thirty bushels to the acre. 
The tools that we referred to were the Potato Digger 
of Pitkin & Brothers, Manchester, Ct., which is war¬ 
ranted to dig with a team as fast as fifteen men can pick 
up, and the Harrow, Seed Planter and Horse Hoe of 
D. \V. Shares, Hamden, Ct., all of which took the 1st 
Premium in their several classes at the State Fair last 
October. They are probably on sale at the Agricultural 
Warehouses in Philadelphia, or if they are not, they soon 
will be. For price and place of sale our correspondent 
can communicate with the above parties. 
Treixfluiug' for Vineyards.—B. Simmons, of 
Ohio, furnishes the following, in contradiction of the com¬ 
monly received opinion, that trenching and draining are 
necessary: “ Possibly experience may dissipate this very 
dry vineyard hobby. To the facts. Mr. J. S. Lowry, ol 
Berlin Heights, in this County, has a vineyard on a flat- 
ish plot of ground at the foot of what, for want of higher 
elevations, is called the mountain, it being some 150 feet 
high. It is on the northwest side, and where a small 
brooklet flows out over the low land at the head of the 
plain, keeping the soil saturated with water during the 
Spring, and sometimes in the Summer. The soil is a black 
clay loam, about one foot deep, and based on a subsoil of 
sand rock, impervious alike to plows and water; and he 
uses no drainage except slight surface drains. Mr. Low¬ 
ry, in other respects, takes good orthodox care of his vines, 
and has succeeded in producing as fine grapes and as good 
wine as any other cultivator. The vineyards of Messrs. 
G. B. Hyde and J. S. Petton, on the lake shore, in this 
township, are extensive, and upon the black unctious clay 
loam of this region, where the water stands on the surface 
at all times during wet weather. Slight surface drains 
only are used, and no subsoiling or trenchmg; yet their 
vines are flourishing, their wines almost uniformly good, 
and their table grapes of the first quality, and wine ditto. 
The varieties are Isabella and Catawba. 
It is a well known fact that nature plants all her vines 
in a swamp or muck land. Is she deceived ? Does not 
the experiment of these gentlemen show that she is not ?” 
Remarks.— Nature has a different obj,ect in view in vine 
growing from man. She wants wood and foliage ; man 
wants fruit. It is, therefore, proper that man should pre¬ 
pare both the soil and the vines for fruit-bearing rather 
than for making wood. Grape vines will grow in almost 
any good corn ground and yield some fruit. The trench¬ 
ing and draining is to make the vines bear more abundantly, 
and to pay for the extra labor and leave a profit. This, 
we think, is the better course in the long run. Trench¬ 
ing and draining do not make the soil very dry, as our 
correspondent supposes, but furnish moisture in equable 
supply through the season. See articles on draining, in 
the last and this number, on this point. 
Using' Mowing I?lac3>ines.—T. Y., of Ulster 
Co., writes: “ One very important requisite in using a 
mower, is to keep the knives free and sharp, in order to 
favor the team and machine. I have cut from 15 to 20 
acres in one day with one of Allen’s mowers. My manner 
of using the mower is, to go around the lot with square 
corners, using the file at one Of th’e four comers every 
bout, as long as my plot 'of grass contains not less than 
five acres, and as often as to be equal to going around 
five acres thereafter, or say once in 30 Or 40 rods. I throw 
the mower out of geer, and the turning gives the horses a 
