AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
247 
killing. Any grain left in the crop sours and ma¬ 
terially injures the flesh if kept long before cooking. 
Dressing .—IJick them dry, taking particular care 
not to tear or bruise the flesh. If scalded at all let 
it be done quickly and in water not quite boiling 
hot. Be careful not to rub off the outer thin skin 
from the legs. If not to be packed in boxes, after 
picking dry or scalding, wash them in clean warift 
soap-suds, and “plump” them, that is hold them in 
boiling water about five seconds. If to be packed 
for carrying a long distance do not wet them q,t all, 
except to wash the neck. Strip back the skin on 
the neck, cut off the neck bone, draw the loose skin 
over, tie it tightly, cut of the bloody portion a 
little way beyond the string and wa^h off any blood, 
wiping dry. This will keep them clean and blood¬ 
less, and increase their saleableness. 
Marketing .—Let them hang until entirely cold, 
and then pack in rye-straw if it be obtainable, put¬ 
ting them into boxes holding not over 200 pounds. 
The packing straw should be bright and clean, and 
it will be greatly improved by drying it in a 
warm oven before using. Put straw between the 
carcasses, and around the sides of the box—enough 
to act as a spring to prevent bruising, and pack 
straw closely under the cover. A little care of the 
kind described above will greatly increase the mar¬ 
ket value. Most persons keep back all their poultry 
until Christmas or New-Years day. This is not 
always the best policy. We have noticed for sev¬ 
eral years, that poultry is scarcest and highest here 
for a few weeks before the holidays. This will be 
the case this year. There will not be half the 
usual demand for turkeys and other fowls at Christ¬ 
mas, because a majority of families are economizing, 
and there will be a great decrease in the number of 
the lower classes who can afford to buy poultry at 
all, unless it happens to be the cheapest food in 
market. As soon as settled cold weather arrives, 
poultry if dressed and packed as above in tight 
boxes, may be sent from the most Western States to 
this market. Contract for the through expenses 
and send to some reliable commission dealer who 
will take the packages in charge on their arrival, 
and dispose of them at once. If you do not know 
of any other person here to entrust them to, we 
think you can rely upon Isaac Emens, 226 Eronhst. 
We only know of him, that several of our acquaint¬ 
ances have sent poultry to his care and have been 
pleased with him. There are many others equally 
reliable for aught we know. 
LOOK OUT EOK WINTER. 
The falling leaves remind us that the cold and 
stormy months are nigh at hand—are even here. 
Silently, but steadily and surely, the seasons re¬ 
volve, each bringing its peculiar pleasures and 
duties. The boys throughout the country, we 
take it, are now enjoying themselves in gathering 
chestnuts, beechnuts, butternuts, walnuts, and the 
like, for their consumption during the long Winter 
evenings. Farmers and provident housekeepers 
generally are storing away in their cellars, apples, 
Winter-pears and vegetables, and supplying their 
barns and sheds with all things needful for the 
health and comfort of their stock. 
Alas ! we fear we must recall the last state¬ 
ment, or modify it somewhat. There are farmers 
who neglect some of their duties at this season, 
and need an occasional prompting from their 
neighbors or from the agricultural press. To 
such we say, Look out for Winter! See that 
your barns are in complete repair. Itjs economy 
to spend all needful time and labor in doing this. 
All domestic animals, as you know, must keep up 
their vital heat by some means, to about 100®, and 
this can be done wholly by consuming food, or in 
part by food, and partly by shelter. If they are 
left out of doors, or kept in dilapidated stables, 
they will have to eat much more ro keep them¬ 
selves warm than ifthey were comfortably housed. 
And besides, a uniform temperature is healthier 
for animals, as for men, than a changeable one. 
It. is great folly to keep stock out of doors in Win¬ 
ter for the sake of “ hardening ” them. 
Our exhortation, then, is to give horses, cattle, 
sheep, and oven pigs and poultry, good Winter 
quarters. Those which are fitting for market, 
will of course need more shelter and care than 
others which are simply being wintered over ; but 
all should be made comfortable. Battens should 
be nailed over the cracks on the exposed sides of 
the barns, every loose board should be tightened, 
and double walls in the immediate neighborhood 
of the horse-stalls would not be labor thrown away. 
Then, as to fodder, see to it that you have 
enough. Short commons in Winter is no mark 
of good farming. Pinch yourself, rather than your 
stock. To make food go a great ways, provide 
yourself with a straw-cutter. Corn-stalks cut fine 
will be eaten up to the stubs by cattle ; and straw, 
clover and coarse hay, will be eaten much cleaner 
than if fed out uncut. They will also be better 
digested. If grain or meal of any kind is mixed 
with the cut food, it should always be moistened 
with water. Apples, carrots, turnips, potatoes, 
&.C., should be kept on hand, and fed out at inter¬ 
vals in the Winter. The dumb beasts relish these 
dishes exceedingly, and every true farmer can 
read their satisfaction in their expressive faces, 
and such reading does him good. 
| THE AGRICULTURAL SHOWS. 
We have found time to visit a few only of the 
State and County Agricultural Exhibitions, hut 
these have been quite sufficient for the present 
year, and for all time to come, unless they are to 
be differently conducted hereafter. From the 
representations held out previously, and from the 
modified tone of the “ announcements,” we hoped 
our agricultural gatherings would this year be 
something more than regularly organized Horse 
Races, with a few extras thrown in, such as 
cattle, horses, sheep, swine, grain, vegetables, 
implements, &c., just to give an agricultural 
coloring to the affair, and to draw out the exhibi¬ 
tors of such useless things, together with their 
families and-their “quarters.” But we 
confess to disappointment. With a few honor¬ 
able exceptions, so far as we have witnessed and 
heard from, the principal attractions of the so- 
called Agricultural Exhibitions this year have been 
the exciting scenes upon the circular track. We 
appeal to those who have been at most expense 
and trouble in getting out their farm and garden 
products on such occasions, to say whether they 
have not invariably found that their animals, 
grain and fruit, &c., have not been almost en¬ 
tirely neglected except by a few early or late 
straggling visitors, and simply because during the 
middle of each day, when nine-tenths of the people 
visit the grounds, their whole attention has been 
drawn off to “ trials of speed.” The principal 
expense and the best ground has been devoted to 
the track, the seats have all been arranged there, 
while the really important things exhibited have 
been literally crowded into the narrowest com¬ 
pass, in some out-of-the-way corner, tent or build¬ 
ing. 
We approve of the exhibition of horses ; we 
fall behind none in our admiration of that useful 
animal; we believe speed to be one of the good 
qualities of horses designed for some kinds of em¬ 
ployment ; but how improvement in speed even 
is promoted by the race cotfrse, as usually con¬ 
ducted, is rather more than we can understand. 
We have no sympathy with the race-course in 
any shape ; we cannot see anything admirable in 
the spectacle of two or more horses on a track 
whipped and goaded to the utmost, by human- 
monkey riders in jockey caps. If others enjoy 
such sport, let them seek an appropriate time and 
place. We claim that they have no right to in¬ 
troduce such sports, surreptitiously or otherwise, 
upon grounds set apart for the exhibition of the 
products of agricultural skill and industry. Not 
one farmer in ten thousand is a raiser of fast 
horses, and not one in five cares for them. Horses 
should be exhibited at agricultural fairs, and their 
speed and even “bottom” should be shown, but 
this should be done singly. They should be ex¬ 
hibited and ridden by their proper owners (or 
those who raised them), dressed like human 
beings—not by the aforesaid human-monkeys in 
jockey caps. 
We have hitherto urged farmers to turn out 
with their wives and children, and go up to these 
festivals; but unless there be, hereafter, some sure 
guarantee that their sons and their daughters are 
not to be initiated into the mysteries of the race¬ 
course, with a taste therefor stimulated and de¬ 
veloped, we feel it to be our bounden duty from 
this time forth to do what we can to discourage 
all future attendance upon any such gatherings. 
We have not done with this subject. 
SUGAR FROM WATERMELONS. 
A friend has shown us a private letter, dated 
Sept. 4th, from a brother in San Francisco Co., 
Cal., from which we make the following extract. 
“ I intend presenting (to the Mechanics’ Institute 
of San Francisco,) some specimens of syrup and 
sugar from the watermelon. I consider this mel¬ 
on as the best source of syrup that has ever been 
tried—far more convenient than the cane or beet. 
All that is necessary is to press out the juice and 
boil; then strain through flannel, and evaporate 
to a proper consistence. One gallon of juice from 
the pulp yields one pint of syrup or three-fourths 
of a pound of sugar.” We are promised further 
particulars which will be given to the readers Oi 
the Agriculturist. 
Remarks. —If half that has been said of the enor¬ 
mous growth of watermelons in California and also 
in Kansas be true, there may be some plausibility 
in the idea of making watermelon syrup and sugar 
profitably. Even in this vicinity, on Long-Island 
apd in New-Jersey, they are grown of enormous 
size and in great quantities—at the cost of one 
cent each, it has been estimated. In yol. XIV 
at page 250 we published the following item : 
A correspondent writes : “ I endeavor to raise 
a good watermelon patch. They are a healthy 
and delightful fruit. I cultivate the Icing variety; 
plant early in May, and again towards the close 
of the month, so that they may come in succes¬ 
sion. When they begin ripening we commence 
cutting and using them freely during the hot 
weather. When the weather becomes cool in 
September, we bring a quantity of them to the 
house, split them open, with a spoon scrape out 
the pulp into a colander, and strain the juice into 
vessels. 
We boil it in an iron vessel to a syrup, then put 
in apples or peaches like making apple-butter, and 
boil slowly until the fruit is well cooked; then 
spice to the taste, and we have something that 
most people prefer to apple-butter or any kind o. 
preserves. Or the syrup may be boiled without 
fruit down to molasses, which will be as fine as 
the sugar-house molasses. We have made in a 
single Autumn as much as ten gallons of the apple- 
butter (if I may so call it) and molasses, which 
kept in a fine condition until May.” 
