AMERICA A' AGRICULTURIST. 
197 
perienced woman, who loves poultry, to look alter 
them. Second : Let your hen lay a single clutch 
of eggs, and then sit on them, as a late brood is 
worth little in this climate. Third : Confine the 
hen and her brood in a pen, six or eight feet 
square, well covered, on a clean sod ; give the 
young chicks all the milk, either sweet or sour, 
they want, and thoroughly cook the food for them. 
If you have not sour milk curds, Indian meal, 
well boiled into mush, as if you were to eat it 
yourself, is the best food, as raw pudding scours 
them ; and as they grow larger, mix boiled pota¬ 
toes with it, if you have them, till they get as 
large as quails, and can catch grasshoppers ; then 
let them out to scour the fields, and our word for 
it, you will always have, barring accidents, a 
noble flock of turkeys in the Fall to rewaid your 
pains-taking. 
THE AUTUMN HAIRS. 
The season is approaching for our annual ex¬ 
hibitions of agricultural and horticultural products. 
These are the most useful and interesting of our 
rural holidays. Here convene enthusiastic and 
skillful cultivators, from far and near, to compare 
opinions, to discuss unsettled questions, to glean 
cnrious information of all sorts, and to win prizes ! 
Such gatherings operate favorably in many re¬ 
spects. They furnish a season of rest from la¬ 
bor, and of relaxation from the daily cares of 
home life. They bring out the leading minds en¬ 
gaged in rural occupations, whose zeal and whose 
success inspire others with new enthusiasm in 
their chosen pursuit. . They lead to the forming 
»f new acquaintances, and brighten the links of 
»ld friendships. 
But some persons, as we happen to know, re¬ 
frain from active participation in Fairs because 
having competed a few times for premiums with¬ 
out success, they think it useless to try again. 
To such we would kindly say : Don’t think the 
great object to be sought in attending Fairs is to 
win premiums. It is a higher and better object 
to give and to gain information, to give and to 
get new impulses, to form new friendships, and 
to confirm old ones. Dear Sirs, go to the Fair, 
then, by all means. Take with you whatever ex¬ 
cellent production you may have, and let it take 
its chance in the competition for reward. But 
do you be sure and go. Go, with a glad and free 
heart, thankful for the blessings of a kind Provi¬ 
dence, and let the light of your happy counte¬ 
nance diffuse joy over all you meet. 
The prominence lately given at our Fairs to 
exhibitions of horse-speed, and of female eques- 
trianship, we cannot approve. In admiration of 
that noble animal, the horse, we are second to 
none. In admiration of woman, we are—what 
shall we say 1 But there is a place for every¬ 
thing. We like not to have our peaceful agricul¬ 
tural exhibitions turned into horse-races; and 
least of all, do we like to see gentle, loving wo¬ 
man vaulting into the arena to become a specta¬ 
cle for gaping thousands. 
An improvement on our present mode of con¬ 
ducting Fairs would be, to connect with the ex¬ 
hibition of any superior product, some account of 
the method of its production. It is not enough to 
dazzle the eyes of the spectator with splendid 
animals, vegetables, fruits, grain crops, &c. The 
earnest minded cultivator is all the while inqui¬ 
ring, how did he do it, and how can I do the same, or 
a similar thing ? Such information could be giv¬ 
en, perhaps, verbally, by the exhibitor himself, on 
some day specially set apart for such purposes,— 
or it might be given in a concisely written state¬ 
ment appended to the object exhibited. If some 
such arrangement could be made, we think it 
would add a great attraction to our Fairs. 
Above we present a cut of an implement, which, 
from the appearance of the engraving, and from 
the description furnished to us, would appear to 
be a valuable acquisition to the farmer. It is 
proper to say that we have not personally used or 
examined the implement itself, and we only in¬ 
troduce this notice of it to give our readers the 
same opportunity as we have, of judging of its 
merits. The advantages claimed by the invent¬ 
or are, that while the knife teeth cut. up clods, the 
roller, weighing some 400 pounds, and armed also 
with cutting teeth, pulverizes the soil completely. 
The points of the teeth being inclined backward, 
obviates the usual clogging, and facilitates its 
passage over rocks and fast stones. The 19 
knives in the triangular frame, each projecting 9 
inches, and the 32 knives in the roller, projecting 
inches, must certainly tear the ground to pie¬ 
ces pretty thoroughly—an important thing in til¬ 
lage. There are other advantages claimed for it 
over the common harrow and roller, and in its 
use on various kinds of lands. These will be ev¬ 
ident to the practical farmer. The implement 
was patented two years since, by Wm. Gourley, 
of White Post, Va. For further information re¬ 
specting its price, &c., see advertisement. 
HINTS ON WHEAT SOWING- 
Having discussed this subject somewhat fully 
in our last volume, we do not propose to take it 
up again at length before next year. There are 
some hints, however, which cannot be too often, 
nor too strongly presented. 
Sow early.— There is only one prominent objec¬ 
tion to early sowing, viz.: that the Hessian fly 
attacks early sown wheat the most severely. But 
the ravages of this insect, (which works only in 
the stalk,) like those of the Chinch Bug, are confin¬ 
ed to comparatively limited localities. The present 
great enemy to the wheat crop, throughout the 
country, is the Midge, or yellow wheat gnat, (er¬ 
roneously called the weevil, or yellow weevil,) 
which is produced from the egg of theClear-winged 
Wheat Fly, ( Cecidomyia Tritici.) [Let it be noted 
that the Hessian Fly attacks the stalk, in the Au¬ 
tumn and Spring ; the weevil attacks the ripe grain, 
usually after it is in the mow, stack or gran ary ; 
while the egg of the Midge is laid in the imma¬ 
ture grain, and hatches out into a little yellow 
worm, or gnat, which only eats the grain while 
still soft.) Now, we believe, all experience proves 
that the Midge is least injurious to early sown, or 
early ripening wheat. This insect is not hatched 
until somewhat late in the Spring or Summer, and 
as it can only injure the grain while soft, wheat 
ripening very early gets out of the way before the 
the Midge can materially effect it. To avoid 
it as much as possible then, sow early in Au¬ 
tumn, that the crop may get well started this sea¬ 
son ; sow the earliest maturing varieties, and 
hasten the crop forward by manuring, and by 
making the soil dry as possible by draining or 
ditching. In answer to the numerous inquiries 
for a remedy against this pest, we can give no 
better specific than the one here stated. Various 
remedies have been proposed, such as burning 
sulphur in the field, scattering lime over the grain ; 
while wet with dew during the setting of the grain, 
but none of these have as yet proved valuable, so 
far as we can learn. 
Early sown wheat is less liable to Winter-kill, 
and to rotting in the ground, and, everything con¬ 
sidered, we say get the seed into the soil now, 
just as soon as possible. Nature is a good promp¬ 
ter, and she sows the next crop as soon as the 
ripe gram falls from the stalks. North of this lat¬ 
itude (41°) it would be better if every kernel of 
Seed could be in the ground before the middle of 
September ; and it should not be delayed beyond 
Oct. 1st, for several degrees of latitude south of 
this, though good crops are often raised in Mary¬ 
land, Delaware, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, 
Missouri and Southern portions of Illinois, Indiana 
and Ohio, from seed sown as late as the last of 
October. Earlier sowing is desirable, however. 
Preparing the soil .— -The best preparation of the 
soil is to plow in deeply a heavy coat of clover, 
and afterwards pulverize the surface thoroughly 
with the harrow, roller, gang plow, or cultivator, 
or with the common plow run shallow. Let the 
clover or sod, turned deeply under, lie undisturb¬ 
ed. Whatever may be the previous preparation, 
let the final job before sowing seed be, to reduce 
the surface to a fine tilth. A harrow with sharp 
cornered teeth, run often over the surface, will be 
pretty effectual. 
Manures. —As'above stated, green crops or sod 
land turned under, are excellent manures. Lime 
sown broad-cast, and well harrowed in, is good 
for wheat,—10 to 15 bushels per acre on light 
soils, and 25 to 50 bushels or more on heavy clay, 
or peaty land may be used There are few light, 
or loamy soils on which it will not pay to sow a 
few bushels of plaster per acre—2 to 12 or more 
bushels according to the good or poor condition of 
the soil. Guano, (genuine Peruvian only,), and 
finely ground or dissolved unburned bones are the 
very best manures for wheat. Guano should be 
thoroughly mixed with the soil some days before 
sowing the seed. Bone dust may be put in with 
the seed, and if in direct contact with it all the 
better. But no one can economically use any 
purchased manures for wheat, while he has a 
mass of barn-yard manure decaying around the 
stalls or cattle pens. The soils of the West, al¬ 
ready rich in black organic matter, do not need 
any of these organic manures, save the “soak.” 
described below. On these soils, however, wo 
think a moderate coating of lime, where it is ac¬ 
cessible, will be found to produce a good effect. 
Wherever manure of any kind is used, let it be 
well and deeply mixed with the soil. The direc¬ 
tions for using.manures given on page 78 of this 
volume, should always he kept in mind. 
Sow good plump seed. —On this point, please 
turn to page 78 of this volume, (April No.,) and 
read the first column. Large plump kernels fur¬ 
nish just the kind of nutriment needed to give 
the germ a good start, which will tell strongly 
upon its future growth. That “ like produces its 
like,” holds good generally for all kinds of seed, 
and in nothing more than in wheat. The best 
wheat grower we have ever known, (now 
deceased,) practiced, from year to year. 
