1866.1 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
307 
There are many excellent bone mills now dis¬ 
tributed through the country for grinding grain. 
There is the Joice’s Starr Mill, the Young Giant, 
and the new style of bark mill, all of which will 
grind bones with one horse, quite fast. We 
know of one farmer who has collected over 30 
tons of bones and ground them with one of the 
Joice’s Starr Mills. We have used the same 
kind of mill, filling the hopper with the largest 
bones and skulls that could be found, and they 
were ground rapidly and most satisfactorily. 
As shin and thigh bones are full of marrow, 
we adjust the mill to let them through very 
coarse. As they come through, the large hard 
pieces are picked out by hand and put through 
the second time, and ground as fine as desira¬ 
ble. If the mill is adjusted to grind fine before 
the marrow is separated from the hard parts of 
the bone, the mill is liable to clog. 
The mills alluded to will grind bones about 
as small as kernels of oats. Of course, the ef¬ 
fect of such coarse “bone dust” will not be 
so apparent the first year, as if it were finer. 
But the fertilizing matter will be in the soil, and 
will promote the growth of crops for several 
successive seasons. There are many of the old- 
fashioned bark mills now in use, that will grind 
bones pretty well. This work might be per¬ 
formed in the winter, when the grinding would 
cost comparatively little. Our practice has been 
to mingle about five bushels of ground bone 
with the same quantity of dry muck or mould, 
and two bushels of gypsum. This makes a 
rich and most excellent top dressing. 
- —> - -- - 
How to Dig Potatoes. 
When potatoes grow several inches below the 
surface of a heavy soil, digging them with a 
hoe, or potato hook is fatiguing labor. It is 
more laborious to dig with hoes than with 
hooks; and more than this, the edge of a hoe 
will wound potatoes more than a hook. We 
have dug with hoes, hooks, spading forks, 
spades and shovels, and for digging in heavy 
soil, w’e like a good fork better than anything 
else, particularly when the potatoes are unusual¬ 
ly deep. The sharp corners of the tines both of 
forks and hooks should be filed oif smooth, 
so that they will not break the skin of potatoes. 
When digging with a fork, thrust the tines into 
the ground perpendicularly, as close to the hill 
as maybe, and be outside of all the potatoes. 
Now grasp all the tops with one hand, and pull 
gently upwards, as the other pries out the po¬ 
tatoes, tops and all. If they are not spread 
out much in the hill, nearly every one will come 
to the surface at the first thrust of the fork, when 
they may be shaken from the vines between two 
rows. A good spade, carefully handled, is al¬ 
most equal to a fork for digging. 
When digging with a hook, press the tines 
their entire length into the ground close to the 
hill, and with one motion, draw out the whole 
hill, and then remove the tops, which should 
never be removed until the potatoes are lifted, 
as the long roots often bring out a large potato 
that would otherwise not have been found. 
When digging with hoes, instead of striking the 
blade directly in the top of a hill, as many do, 
haul off the dirt gently until the potatoes are al¬ 
most laid bare; then bury the blade of the hoe 
its whole length into the soil and draw thenr all 
out at once. When digging with hoes, it is 
better to pull the tops first. 
The most expeditious and easiest way is to do 
most of the digging with a plow. Let the team 
travel astride of a row, and run a Im'ge plow 
just deep enough to turn out the lowest tubers. 
The plow must not be run through the hills, but 
at one side as closely as possible and not leave 
any potatoes. By plowing around a land, 10 or 
12 rows wide, there will be little danger of cov¬ 
ering them with dirt after they have been plow¬ 
ed out. After a row has been thrown out with 
a plow, a man will haul them out with a potato 
hook very fast. 
- - I — —-- 
Exterminating Charlock, or Field Mustard. 
{SiTiapis arvensis.) 
We know of no weed in the grain-growing 
districts of New York, that is so difficult to ex¬ 
terminate as this. Canada thistles, daisies and 
dock, can be eradicated with facility, compared 
with this. Field mustard is an annual plant, 
having leaves like the turnip, and bright yellow 
flowers. It starts from the seed at any time be¬ 
tween early spring and late autumn. The plants 
grow rapidly, and produce a large number of 
seeds in a short time. In ordinary seasons, two 
crops will mature on the same field, but winter 
kills every plant. The seeds will remain in the 
ground a life time, without losing their vitality. 
We have cultivated a field sixteen successive 
seasons, allowing no mustard to go to seed; 
but deep plowing brought seed to the surface 
the seventeenth year, so that the ground was 
nearly covered with the young plants. 
When wheat, rye, barley, oats, flax, and such 
crops are raised, if there is mustard seed in the 
soil, it will appear, and will ripen its seed be¬ 
fore the crops. Much of the seed will shell out 
while the grain is being harvested. If it should 
not be covered with earth sufficiently deep to 
promote vegetation, it will remain until the 
next season, or until the moisture and heat 
happen to be just right to cause germination. 
There are two things indispensably necessary 
to exterminate mustard. One is to allow no 
seed to mature; and the other is to cultivate 
such crops as will induce all the seed to vege¬ 
tate, that the plants may be destroyed before 
they go to seed. Grain having mustard seed 
among it, should never be fed to stock until 
after it is ground into meal. 
When mustard comes up very thick, harrow 
the ground thoroughly, as soon as the crop of 
grain has been removed. After a few weeks 
have elapsed, harrow it again. This will destroy 
most of the young plants in the seed leaf. 
After this, use a cultivator instead of a harrow. 
These repeated scarifyings will cover the seed 
and bring others near the surface so that a large 
proportion will vegetate and die before winter. 
The next season harrow the ground early in the 
spring so as to start a new crop of the seed. 
Plow it soon after the time for planting Indian 
corn. Harrow again in about two weeks. 
After another fortnight, plow and sow buck¬ 
wheat. As soon as the buckwheat is harvested 
harrow the ground again. The next season 
manure well, and raise a hoed crop; and allow 
no mustard to go to seed. Next sow a crop of 
winter grain. The mustard may now appear 
quite thick. But none of it will have time to 
ripen before winter, when every plant will die. 
A limited number of plants will appear the 
next season among the standing grain. When 
they are in full blossom, let every one be pulled. 
A careful, faithful man will be able to pull all 
the mustard in a day that will appear on sever¬ 
al acres, after the soil has been treated in the 
manner recommended. After this any kind of 
grain maybe raised. But for more than twenty 
yeai'S, mustard will come up every season, and 
must be pulled up before it ripens. This is the 
only way that our cultivable fields can be rid 
of this pestiferous plant. Incessant vigilance 
from year to year will exterminate it effectually. 
Breaking Down and Cutting Broom Corn. 
Abram Stokes, of Ulster Co., N. Y., commu¬ 
nicates his way of breaking down and gather¬ 
ing Broom corn, and manner of threshing the 
seed. He writes: “I never break any brush 
down that does not lop all the wisps one way. 
I think it is best to break the stalks of the crook¬ 
ed brush between the second or third joints from 
the top as short as it can be without breaking it 
off. The rest I leave standing till a few days 
before it is fit to cut. Then I break the stalks 
toward the rising sun so that the dew will dry 
off in the morning. When cutting the brush, I 
take the stalk in the left hand close to the brush, 
and cut it off with a butcher’s knife that is not 
very sharp. A knife with a keen edge will cut 
the leaf off, which bothers. I take all the leaves 
off the stalk, holding the brush in my hand till 
I have a handful, laying the brush of three or 
four rows between two rows in gavels, ready to 
put on a wagon to go to the drying shed. 
“Brush will not grow in length after it is 
broken down; yet it will become coarser and 
continue to ripen if it is not broken entirely off. 
Every time the brush is handled, keep it as 
straight as you can conveniently, as it is a slow 
job to straighten it when it is tangled like hay. 
The stalks of each brush should be not less than 
four, nor more than six inches long, as six inch¬ 
es is the most convenient length when making 
brooms. If the stalks are much longer, the}'’ 
only increase the bulk of broom corn, and often 
require extra labor to cut them of convenient 
length before they are worked up.” 
HOW TO THRESH BROOM CORN. 
“ To thresh with a flail, lay the brush in a row 
on the barn floor two or three stalks deep, and 
place a plank on the stalks, with one edge even 
with the lower end of the brush. Stand on the 
plank while using the flail. The object of the 
plank is to protect the stalks from being crush¬ 
ed, as mashing spoils them for brooms. 
“ Another way of removing the seed is with a 
broom corn hatchel, or comb, the teeth of which 
are made of iron f by i square, and about 8 
inches long. Six inches of one end should be 
drawn to a point. About 2 inches of the lower 
end should be left full size. The points should 
be beveled on both sides, leaving the back side 
the widest. The points of the teeth should be 
about i an inch apart. The teeth are fastened 
on the back side of the end of a plank 2 feet 2 
inches high, and one foot wide, with two bolts 
and a cross piece (or they may be set firmly in 
holes in the end of the plank). This upright 
plank is then spiked to another plank resting 
flatly on the floor. The broom corn brush is 
drawn through these teeth, which strips off the 
seed.—Another way is to thresh the corn with 
a cylinder driven by horse or other power. A 
cylinder for such a purpose should be about 2 
feet long, 10 inches in diameter, driven by a pul¬ 
ley 6^ inches in diameter. The spikes should 
be 3 inches long, and k inch in diameter, driven 
1 inch into the wood. Make marks around the 
cylinder i of an inch apart, and set the spikes 
in seven different rows lengthwise of the cylin¬ 
der, so that a wisp may pass between two teeth. 
The teeth should be bearded so that they will 
not fly out. The cylinder is overshot with a 
concave. Two men hold the handfuls, and two 
, others prepare them for threshing.” 
