82 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
Preparing Fire-Wood. 
In most parts of the Empire State, as well as 
in some of the Eastern States, many farmers are 
busy a portion of the time, from January to 
Apiil, in cutting and hauling their fire-wood 
for next 5 mar. For the most part, it is sawed, 
split, and piled, during the wet and stormy 
weather of March and April, when workmen 
cannot engage in field labors. This is a good 
liractice, and worthy of adoption by scores of 
slip-shod farmers, who commence a year before¬ 
hand to prepare their fire-wood for a year to 
come, but who are never able to get it split and 
jiiled in lime to allow it to become well seasoned 
tiefore it is to be burned. There is much bad 
management with fire-wood. Allowing it to 
remain for several mouths eriiosed to the 
w'eather, after it has been cut and split fine 
enough for the stove, is a very bad practice; 
because its quality will be injured, moi’e or 
less, and it will never make as much heat as 
though it had been piled under an open shed, 
ns soon as split, and before it was seasoned. 
The labor of splitting fire wood for stoves 
may be greatly facilitated by using a splitting 
bench, which is represented by the accompany¬ 
ing figure. It is made in the following man¬ 
ner : procure two 
small logs, or round 
sticks of wood, about 
three, or four feet 
long, and six or eight 
inches in diameter. 
Connect the two logs 
with a two-inch 
wooden round, near each end, as shown by the 
engraving, so as to form an opening, about ten or 
twelve inches square. Place this frame on four 
strong legs, driven firmly into the logs, in the 
under side. Place billets of wood in the bench, 
.standing on one end, and app'y the axe. The 
object of the bench is to keep the wood erect, 
while it is being split. When a splitting bench 
Is not used, the workman is obliged to set up the 
bLlJet every time a stick is split off. Conse¬ 
quently, he \yill spend as much, or perhaps 
more time, m simply seUing up his sticks, in a 
proper position for splitting, than ho will in 
splitting them. After a billet of wood has beep 
plHced in the splitting bench, a man may split 
three, or four of them fine enough for the stove, 
about as soon as he will be able to split one 
stick, without using such a bench. The hight 
of the bench should be about two thirds the 
length of the wood that is to be split. A split¬ 
ting bench of a different style may be construct¬ 
ed, by using the crotch of a tree, with a stick 
fastened across the two branches. In using 
any kind of a wood splitting bench, care must 
be exercised not to allow the axe to pass 
through a stick so far, as to permit the helve 
to strike on one of the sides of the bench, 
as one careless blow would break it. Let the 
blows be applied in such a manner, that the 
edge of the axe will pass through the upper end 
of a billet of wood, and strike the side log. 
Tliere are many pleasing incidents and asso¬ 
ciations connected with hauling wood, in the 
manner represented by the accompanying illus¬ 
tration. Our thoughts revert to the days of 
boyhood, when we were accustomed to haul 
fire-wood with the oxen and “ox-sled.” The 
sled was made entirelj^ of wood, with not a 
single nail, bolt, band, or strap of iron about it; 
even the shoes were made of some kind of very 
hard wood, which had been seasoned not less 
than one year, expressly for that purpose. 
These hard-wood shoos were fitted neatly to 
the runners, and fastened to them wfith wooden 
pins. In many of our Northern States, we meet 
occasionally with one of these sliding vehicles, 
in all its primeval rudeness, and it will compare 
with the strong and neat double sleighs, that 
are now in use, about as the neat and effective 
steel plows do with the rude bull plows that 
were in use on many farms about forty years 
ago. These rude sleds are made by our back¬ 
woodsmen in the following manner:—A tree, 
which has a suitable crook for the runners, is 
cut down and split into two parts, which are 
scored and hewed, like sticks of framing timber. 
Then the beams are fastened to the runners, 
with wooden pins. All the tools required are a 
chopping axe, a carpenter’s adze, drawing-knife, 
two augers, and a hand-saw. But improved 
sliding vehicles have nearly supplanted the 
“Yankee ox-sled,” even in the newly settled 
portions of the Northern and Eastern States. 
Tricks and treachery are the practice of 
fools that have not 'wit enough to be honest. 
ITew Varieties of Tomato. 
A friend in Massachusetts, who 
tries all the new vegetables, has 
at our request given his expe¬ 
rience with some of the new 
Tomatoes. He says of the 
Valencia Cluster Tomato : 
“A flat, smooth sort, of good 
market size, growing in closely 
jammed clusters much like tlie 
extra early York. It is a hand¬ 
some tomato, but against it lies 
the fatal objection of being ter¬ 
ribly late—the latest by far of a 
dozen varieties cultivated last 
season. Some of .the vines ex¬ 
hibited the peculiarity of very 
light colored leaves at the ex¬ 
tremities of the shoots, having 
a half bleached look, like the 
head of a Blumenthaler Savoy 
Cabbage.— The Cook’s Favor¬ 
ite. This variety is a very 
vigorous grower, lipens veiy 
early, and is prolific. The foliage 
is of a handsome light green. 
It is an improved sort of the apple tomato, giv¬ 
ing a larger proportion of large handsome apple¬ 
shaped fruit, than any of the common sorts; 
the fruit ripening to the stem, and being full 
meated. The tomatoes are of fine size, and of 
good flavor. On the whole it is decidedly the 
best variety of the apple tomato in the market. 
Extra Early York Tomato. This is mostly 
a flat-round, slightly scolloped form. It is quite 
early, yields its fruits in clusters. It does not 
ran to vine so much as most varieties, the 
plants growing to about two-thirds the usual 
size. It ripens its fruit to the veiy extremity of 
the branch. The quality is excellent, and it very 
seldom decays on the vine. I have found no 
tomato, in my testing of over a dozen varieties, 
that will yield so much ripe fruit to a given area 
as this. This and the Cook’s Favorite will) some 
large later sorts would leave nothing fuither 
to be desired for standard market tomatoes.” 
- m % — a -*—-- 
The Yokohama Squash. 
Mr. J. J. H. Gregoiy, of Marblehead, Mass., 
to whom we are indebted for the Hubbard, and 
who is acknowledged authority on squashes, 
sends us the following notes of his experience 
with the new variety of Japan Squash. “It re¬ 
quires a larger season to mature than any of our 
standard sorts; it should tlierefore—in the 
latitude of Boston—be started under glass. It 
is prolific, grows to an average size of about 7 
pounds, is very dark green, while growing, and 
begins to assume a dull copper color near the 
stem and calyx end as it ripens, and gradually 
turns wholly this color. It is very flat in shape, 
and remarkably thick mealed latera^J^ The 
outside of most of them is covered with small 
blisters, reminding one of a toad’s back; there 
appears to be another variety in which these 
blisters are wanting. This squash is deeply 
sutured. The shape of the leaf, the habit of 
growth, the seed and the quality of the squash 
ally it very evidently with the Crook-neck familjq 
with which I have no doubt it will cross. The 
quality of this squash, when fully ripe, is ex¬ 
cellent, being very fine grained, having a very 
smooth taste, sweet and rich, it being like the 
best specimens of Canada Crook-neck, combined 
with a nice marrow. It will doubtless prove 
a great favorite with a large class of persons. 
