AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
327 
! ■■■■ ! ■■— mr anr^T— —u ' r ■■ 1. f 1 "* 
to attend, and listen to the rare music which we 
offer for their amusement. 
All w» ask for our services is, to be let alone in 
the undisturbed possession of our homes and call¬ 
ings. The little boy who threw a stone at Mr. 
Bobolink, and broke his wing, may remain at 
home, he is not wanted at our concert. The great 
boy who robbed Mrs. Sparrow the other day, car¬ 
rying away her eggs and nest, had better stay 
and help his mother sweep the kitchen—his pre¬ 
sence would not add to our enjoyment. The man 
who threw a club at Mrs. Robin, who was picking 
up some worms in the garden for her children, 
may attend to his garden, and look to the bugs 
and insects himself; this would suit us better 
than his attendance. The little girl who got up 
cross the other morning, and pouted at her mother 
because her mother wanted her to wash her face, 
should keep away; it is not intended for her 
amusement. The great girl who spends most of 
her time in making or altering dresses to wear 
to balls, or other parties of pleasure, while her 
poor sick mother is wearing her life out to sup¬ 
port the family, and keep them together, will take 
the hint that her absence will not occasion us any 
regret, or lessen our enjoyment; this performance 
would not be adapted to her nature, and she 
would gain 1*0 satisfaction in listening to our sim¬ 
ple, artless strains of melody. The man who 
spends two dollars every week for tobacco or 
rum, and other unnecessary articles, and neglects 
to pay his honest debts, the fumes of his fetid 
breath would exceedingly annoy us, and we would 
most respectfully request him to keep at a dis¬ 
tance. The man who takes the newspaper, and 
don’t pay for it, may get his music where he can 
And it; we won’t sing to him for love or money. 
The old baohelor who closed his purse the other 
day, against a poor woman who had five small 
children and a drunken husband to support, may 
lie in bed, or go fishing, or do something else, we 
do not court his company ; if he would attend less 
to his own comforts, and a liftle more alleviate 
the wants of suffering humanity, we would wel¬ 
come him, most gladly, to our entertainment. 
Those who so live that the clamors of a guilty 
conscience may not mar the harmonies of song, 
will find vacant seats waiting their attendance. 
Please reoolleot that the first ray of morning 
light is heralded by our sweetest notes. 
Mr. Bobolink 
Mrs. Robin, 
Mrs. Sparrow 
Mr. Jay, 
PLOWING POINTED LANDS 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
Though if ig customary to strike out lands for 
plowing, in the form of a parallelogram, that is, 
both ends of the same width, yet it often happens 
that, owing to the irregularity of a field, one or 
more lands run out to a point. In such cases it 
is the universal practice to plow entirely around 
them, that is, drive the team to the pointed end 
and turn round upon the plowed land. Where 
there are many turnings of this kind there is ne¬ 
cessarily much tramping of the loosened ground. 
In my practice, I avoid this as follows : When 
going out towards the point, at a place where the 
plowed land is still say six feet in width, I turn 
the team round on the unbroken ground and go 
back around the wide end. By turning about 
thus as often as I reach a place in the plowed 
laud of only six feet wide, I reduce the whole to 
a uniform width, and have done all the turn¬ 
ing and tramping upon unplowcd land. The 
test six feet is, of oourse, finished by furrows the 
whole length of it. It will readily be seen that 
the turnings are no more than if they wore made 
at the same places as fast as the land is run out to 
a point. Besides avoiding packing the loosened 
soil, it is much easier for the team to turn upon 
solid ground, especially if the soil be mellow and 
deeply plowed. a Maine yinkee. 
Rumarks.— The above is a valuable suggestion. 
Practical plowman will, of course, understand 
that it is necessary to narrow each furrow to a 
point before turning, and also to strike in on the 
opposite side with a narrow cut, otherwise the 
two sides of the six feet wide plot would be left 
very rough, or notched, and the first through fur¬ 
rows to finish off the last plot would be very un¬ 
even, and, at least, show bad. Every one does, 
or should delight in seeing his work left smooth 
and even -— Ed. 
A SMALL CIDER MILL AND [’HESS. 
We oan not better answer the numerous in¬ 
quiries for a small, cheap Cider Mill and Press, 
than by presenting the accompanying illustration 
of the Keystone mill, which we do without solici¬ 
tation or even the knowledge of the patentee, 
simply because we believe it * a good thing.’ We 
have seen it in operation several times during two 
years past, and have always been pleased with it. 
It is cheap, oocupies but little space, say 2J- by 3£ 
feet; it is easily stored, or carried from farm to 
farm, as it weighs scarcely 400 lbs., and does the 
work, so far as we have observed, as effectually as 
the old mills occupying much more space, and 
costing two or three times as much. We notice 
in the mills on sale this year, several improve¬ 
ments upon the former construction. 
The mode of working can be seen by a glance 
at the cut. The apples are thrown into a hopper 
where they are ground to a fine pulp or pummaee. 
This may be done by hand, or b.y attaching a band 
from a horse-power to the band wheel. The pulp 
is then shoveled into the press, which is made of 
thick narrow staves set nearly together, and held 
by strong iron hoops. The pressure is applied by 
an iron screw, which can be turned up and down 
by hand or with a long lever placed between the 
upright handles. The usual retail price is $40. 
It may be used for pressing apples, grapes, cur¬ 
rants, benies, cheese, &c. AVe have not our¬ 
selves seen its full capacity tried. A correspond¬ 
ent who writes strongly in its praise, says thak 
with *he aid of his two boys, (ages not given), he 
easily makes five barrels of cider in a day. We 
have thus given our own opinion of this mill; if 
any of our readers find it to fail in practice we 
shall be glad to hear from them also. 
Flowers are the alphabet of angels, wherewith 
they write on hills and plains mysterious truth. 
What is more beautiful and poetical than the 
child’s idea of ice, “ Water gone to sleep.” 
For the Choir. 
COLUMBIAN GUANO. 
INFORMATION WANTED. 
We are quite anxious to gather immediate in¬ 
formation in reference to the use of this article. 
Will any of our readers, having used it, please 
let us know of their experience, where they pur¬ 
chased it, &c.l 
BONES—AND HOW TO DISSOLVE' THEM. 
\\ T e have frequently referred to the value of 
unhurried bones as a fertilizer. That bone dust is 
superior to any and every other manure purchased 
from outside of the farm, we are so strongly con- 
vineed'by experience and observation, as well as 
by theory, that we buy no other fertilizer, and 
probably shall not, so long as this article can be 
obtained at anything like a reasonable price. The 
chief reason for our not writing more on this top¬ 
ic is, that the supply is so limited that it hardly 
seems worth while to wake up an interest in the 
matter, or create a demand for what cannot be 
supplied. 
The present year we had about one-fourth of 
an acre planted with a great variety of garden 
stuff, using bone sawings, (obtained from a bone 
comb and knife-handle manufactory,) in the hill or 
drill with every variety of seed. This was put on 
thus at the rate of about five barrels to the acre. 
We held in reserve the sink-slop vault, described 
on page 157, (July No.,) expecting to draw large¬ 
ly from it. But the damp season has left no demand 
for watering, and as for additional fertilizing ma¬ 
terial, why everything has grown so rank and 
fiuitful that a pruning knife or hoe has been con¬ 
stantly needed to thin out or lop off the supera¬ 
bundance. AA'e should hardly be believed, did we 
write down what beets, turnips, tomatoes, corn, 
asparagus, kohl rabi, cauliflower, strawberry 
plants, rhubarb, &c., &c., &c., we have raised. 
We attribute these chiefly to the bone dust, so 
finely pulverized that it was all ready to at once 
nourish everything it came in contact with. An 
assistant at our elbow says, “that two to four 
feet trenching must come in for a share of the 
credit ” Well, allow for thatj and the bone dust 
still did the thing. Please turn to the articles 
on manure, in the first numbers of this volume, 
and look over the reasons there given why bones 
are so valuable to plants. 
AVe said bones are scarce, and so they are, 
comparatively, yet a vast amount could be gath¬ 
ered in the country were there a general, thorough 
“bone-hunt” instituted upon every farm. Give 
the boys ten cents a bushel for all they will col¬ 
lect for you, and you will soon find a cartload. 
There are plenty of vagabond boys in most 
neighborhoods who might be engaged in such a 
job, with profit to the community as well as to 
themselves and friends. 
But the great difficulty is in using bones. They 
should not be burned, for that destroys at least 
seven-eighths of their real value. They should 
not be dissolved in ashes, for that is almost as 
bad as burning. They are best when ground to 
powder —not merely crushed into small pieces. 
In this form (powder) they can be pot directly 
into the hill, or drill, with seed, or around 
and - in contact with growing plants, without the 
least danger of injuring them. They furnish most 
excellent nutriment and stimulent to all sorts of 
growing crops and vegetables, no matter what 
the kind or variety. 
The greatest difficulty lies in getting tnem 
ground, since bone-mills are scqrce, and few of 
those in operation grind the bones finely enough 
for immediate benefit. There are few farmers 
in the older States who could not afford to haul 
bones 20 or 30 miles to have them ground, but 
