I860.] 
283 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
honor and intelligence of makers, are frequently defraud¬ 
ed. It is noticeable that the sample whieh contained the 
largest percentage of soluble phosphoric acid, and also 
of ammonia, -was the lowest in price, though made out of 
the State. Mr. Johnson gave simply the number of the 
sample furnished him. Mr. Gold added the names of the 
manure, that of the manufacturer, and of the dealer of 
■whom it was obtained in cash case. The report is very 
unsatisfactory in one particular, the bearings and rela¬ 
tions of which we shall probably take an early opportu¬ 
nity to discuss more at length. That is, the commercial 
values. Besides, the values are stated in gold; the prices, 
in currency. Some check should be put upon the cupid¬ 
ity of dealers, some strong inducements held out to 
manufacturers to understand their own business and to 
make good articles, for a man may be very honest and 
yet put a very poor article upon the market, and ask a 
high price for it. It is a delicate matter in such cases to 
do exact justice. See item on Com. Fertilizers in Maine. 
Leached, or Unleached Ashes.— 
Levi Hall, of Cumberland Co., Me., asks: “Arc leached 
ashes worth more or less per bushel than nnleached ?” 
Ans.—Commercially about the same ; agriculturally, ordi¬ 
narily less—and always less, every thing considered. 
Unleachcd ashes are light, if dry, and contain a varying 
amount of potash, but enough to give them always great 
value as a fertilizer. In leaching, a large part of the pot¬ 
ash is withdrawn; the remainder is very much com¬ 
pacted and still contains a good deal of potash. If poorly 
leached, the amount of potash in a bushel of leached 
ashes sometimes equals that in the same measure 
of unlenchcd. In this case, of course, it would be worth 
more on account of the other valuable fertilizing ingre¬ 
dients it contains. Though the potash, which is the most 
valuable ingredient,be removed by leaching,other articles, 
especially the phosphates, are proportionately increased. 
Hence for common use we regard one nearly ns valuable 
as the other, though preference should be given to un¬ 
leached hard-wood ashes, if well compressed in measur¬ 
ing, supposing the leaching of the others to have been 
thorough. 
Mow Much Wheat Can a Man Cra¬ 
dle In a Day?— Mr. I. r. Walker, of Mississippi, 
says: “I had a dispute as to the quantity of wheat a 
good cradler ought to cut in a day, and [refer the matter 
to you.”—We have heard men claim that they have cra¬ 
dled live acres of wheat in a day, and that one man bound 
it up after them. With a light crop, cut high, and calling 
16 or 17 hours a day, the thing is possible. But with a 
fair crop of wheat, of say 25 bushels per acre, two acres 
is a good average day’s work. Here the question has 
lost its practical interest. What we now want are men 
who can bind up the wheat into sheaves rapidly and well 
after a reaping machine. If a man formerly conld cradle 
5 acres a day, and one man bind it up after him, the race 
of binders is sadly degenerated. We have cut wheat for 
several years with one of Wood’s Self-raking reapers, 
which leaves the wheat in good shaped bundles, and a 
man ought to be able to bind after it more rapidly than 
after a cradler, when the grain is left in a swath. But we 
find that the very men who boast of having been able to 
cradle and bind three, four, and five acres a day, cannot 
bind and stack up more than two acres after the machine. 
And yet it is easier binding after a machine than after a 
cradler. Let these who boast of liow much they can 
cradle in a day turn their attention to binding, and wo 
can, for a few years, give them a chance to exhibit their 
skill and activity. Cradling is obsolete. We know of 
but one way to reconcile those facts. The four and five- 
acre-a-day performances were mere “ spurts.” 
Barley vsT Corn.—“C. H. T.” asks if a 
bushel of barley is worth as much to feed out as a bushel 
of corn.—A bushel of barley is only 48 lbs., and seldom 
comes up to the standard, while a bushel of corn is 56 
lbs., and generally overruns. So that even if 100*lbs. of 
barley is as nutritious as 100 lbs. of corn, which is doubt¬ 
ful, it would require 7 bushels of barley to be equal to 6 
bushels of com. A little barley meal mixed with com 
meal for pigs is thought by many farmers to make more 
and better pork than corn alone. 
Farmers “Lying; on their Oars.” 
—To give an idea of the feeling of farmers over a large 
section of the West, a single letter will suffice. It comes 
from “ J. C. K.,” of Marshall Co., Ill., and is dated July 
2d. “ We are literally drowned out here, and have been 
lying on our ‘ oars ’ now for almost three weeks, waiting 
for it to stop raining, and still it rains. What are we to 
do ? Our spring wheat and oats will all go to straw, and 
our rye will be lost on account of the ground being so soft, 
that we can’t ran a reaper to harvest it. Our corn looks 
as though it had the hollow hom, yellow as ripe wheat, 
and a great deal of it has not been plowed the first time, 
and looks as green as a meadow with weeds. There are 
farmers hero in the garden spot of Illinois, and of the 
world, who will not raise enough corn to feed their stock, 
as the corn is small, the weeds large, the ground wet, and 
hands scarce, so that we can't clean it out in time to 
make good fodder,—at least the most of it is so, and if I 
have n’t been misinformed, it is pretty much the same all 
over the West. Would n’t this be a good time to organ¬ 
ize a Farmers’ Club and discuss the laying of drain tiles 
and other matters connected with the farm, as we have 
the ‘ blues ’ the worst you ever saw, and need something 
to put in our time, at these rainy days f The salutation of 
every farmer you meet is ‘ Good morning. When do 
you think it will stop raining ?’ ” 
Plata, Ihuclcs. — W. M. Brockfleld, St. 
Louis, Mo. These ducks are a variety of the Musk, (im¬ 
properly called Muscovy). The original stock came from 
the La Plata River in South America, and is different from 
the common Musk ducks, chiefly in color, and in having, 
we believe, less of the red, carunculated skin about their 
heads. Their color is silvery-white, or white with slate- 
colored spots. If Musk or Muscovy ducks have any ad¬ 
vantages over common ducks, we do not know what 
they are. They are tender, not bearing our winters well; 
they fly like kites; and the drakes are large and have a 
musky smell, from which comes their name. The ducks are 
no larger than common ducks, and pairs do not weigh 
more than good Rouens or Aylesburies. The “mon¬ 
grels ” produced by crossing Musk drakes with common 
ducks are large and good eating. They do not breed. 
Three-horse Evencr or Clevis.— 
We find by an advertisement of G. H. Gale, Kalamazoo, 
Mich., that the idea of a Threc-liorse Evener, as described 
and credited to Mr. Mitchell, on page 293, is claimed as 
a patented right by a “Three-horse Clevis Manufacturing 
Co.,” in the place above named. We have no knowledge 
as to priority of invention or of facts, save those given. 
Trial of Mowers and Keapers at 
Sod alia, T?Io. —A trial of mowers and reapers which 
has excited a good deal of interest occurred under the 
patronage of the Pettis Co. Agricultural Society, on the 
22d of June, near Sedalia, Mo. There were forty entries, 
and an experienced committee of judges, of which the 
President of the Society, Major Gentry, was Chairman. 
The machines were classified as follows: Self-raking 
Reapers, Droppers, Hand-rakes, Combined Machines, 
Mowers. Interest centred in self-raking reapors, and 
in this class Wood’s machine took the first prize. We 
have not seen a full list of awards in the other classes. 
This is considered the greatest trial of harvesting 
machines ever held west of the Mississippi. 
Sights and Sensations in France, 
Germany, and Switzerland. By Edward Gould 
Bufliim. N. Y.: Harper & Brothers. The story of Euro¬ 
pean travel has been told over and over, but never more 
pleasantly than in this posthumous work of a well-known 
American journalist. He takes certaiffisalient points and 
tells all about them. Wo have derived much pleasure 
from this book. 
CJrape €$neries by “Johnny,” Blairsville, 
Pa.—We do not know what you mean by “ slugs” on the 
vine. If you mean caterpillars, hand picking is the best 
remedy. If vines are trained properly, all parts are 
within reach, and the task is not a heavy one. As to 
keeping grapes, that depends upon the variety. Concord 
and other soft grapes will not keep under any circum¬ 
stances, while those with a thick skin, like the Catawba 
and Diana, readily keep until New Year’s. After the 
grapes have shrunk a little, put them in boxes of about 
five pounds each, and keep them cool. 
Strawberries at Mt. Pulaski, Ml. 
—“ O. A. A.” writes: “I have been endeavoring for a 
few years past to ascertain by experiment what kind or 
kinds are most profitable for me, and am fast settling 
down on the Agriculturist. I received it of you with the 
paper, and set a bed of it in the spring of 1867, which 
has remained ever since. At the same time I set the 
Russell, Triomplie, and some others. The first season 
the Russell did the best, but last year and this the Agri¬ 
culturist has been twice as productive as the Russell, and 
has proved itself the hardier. Last winter, which was 
particularly trying on strawberries, made an end of the 
Trioinphe. Mine were all unprotected, and looked so 
bad in the spring that I expected no fruit, or very little, 
but the Agriculturist was really fine. In the fall of 1867 
I procured some plants of Jucunda and Wilson. Of the 
Jucundas I have now less than my original number, and 
have had perhaps 3 or 4 fair-sized berries. I don’t think 
it i3 going to do any thing for me. Still I intend to keep 
it a year or two longer and give it protection, if it doesn’t 
die out before winter comes. The Wilsons gave me this 
year a moderate amonnt of fair fmit. but they must mend 
their pace if they catch up with the Agriculturist.” 
Running out the Lund with Gun. 
no.—“ F. G.,” Vineland, N. J. The larger the crops 
you take from the land, the quicker it will run out. If 
you have a credit at the bank for $10,000 and want to use 
the money now, will you draw it out a few hundred dol¬ 
lars at a time ? No. You make a check for the whole 
amount at once, and use the m®ney. The soil is a bank; 
you have a credit thero which consists of all the immedi- J 
ately available plant-food in it, without reference to 
whether it was formed there or you put it in. A crop is 
a check. It is impossible to draw out all the fertility 
with one crop, but if you wish to do so as nearly as you 
can, use Peruvian guano and highly concentrated, stimu¬ 
lating manures. If you take care that you return to the 
soil as much as you draw out, or a little more, there will 
be no exhaustion ; but if you keep on drawing without 
making equivalent deposits, of course you will run out 
the land as truly as you would your balance at the bank. 
We believe in getting as big crops as possible, but in 
keeping the soil good, too. 
A Frohlem—ISye. —• A correspondent of 
the Agriculturist writes: “In this section of country 
(Ulster County, N. Y.), the snow and ice covered the 
ground for about four months last winter, and there was 
little or no frost in the ground. Where new rye of 186S 
has been sown, it was damaged greatly,and much appeared 
dead in tiie roots ; where the old rye of 1867 was sown, it, 
came out fresh and green. Why this difference ?”-If 
this is a fact, it is a very important one; but we appre¬ 
hend more is due to the character of the soil than to the 
seed. Please thoroughly investigate soil, manuring, 
time of sowing, etc. 
I>ry F.nrth its a Iheodoritiicr. — “ M. 
L. II.,” Lancaster Co., Pa., thinks that the talk about dry 
earth as a deodorizer is nothing new, and refers us to an 
article by the Rev. II. Moule, in the Patent Office Report 
for 1860. It is upon the basis of the investigations of this 
same Rev. II. Moule that all the subsequent talk rests. 
The Earth Closet Co. give him full credit for his discov¬ 
ery, and we have done so frequently. 
Tomatoes from California. — Mr. | 
Chas. Drake, No. 3 Hudson St., N. Y., brought us on | 
July 12th some tomatoes sent by Drake & Emerson from * 
San Francisco, by railroad. They were picked too late 
for so long a journey, and were a little over-ripe. 
Small Fruit Seed.— J. A. Hall, Wash¬ 
ington Co., N. Y. Crush the fruit and wash out the 
seeds of your raspberries, blackberries, etc., and mix 
them with sand. They will keep in a cool place until 
spring, when they should be sown early. Strawberries, 
for which it is now too late, will mako good plants if 
sown the same season the fruit ripens. 
Fruit Preserving; Povvdcr.-Tbc many 
who have asked about this have already found their an¬ 
swer in the July number. We have there said all that 
we know about it, and are sufficiently pleased with what 
we have seen of it to give it a trial. 
Chinese Yams. —Wo do not recommend 
their cultivation, except as a curiosity. The little bulbs 
from which they are propagated are sold at all the largo 
seed stores in the spring. 
Apples and <|ninces from Cut¬ 
tings. — “J. S. B.,” West Falmouth, Mass. Very 
few apples will grow readily from cuttings, and these aro 
not of kinds desirable for fruit. Quinces are usually 
propagated from cuttings, which should be made in the 
fall, and cither set then, or buried where they will callus, 
and can be put out very early in spring. 
Falycantfens or Sweet-scented 
Shrub. —“ Polk City.” This shrub is not usually raised 
from seed. The plants arc to be had of all nurserymen 
who keep ornamental shrubs at all, ns it is one of the 
most common. 
Heating- a CJreen-honse.— J. Doane, 
Norfolk Co., Mass. Drain pipes will answer for your 
flue after the first 50 ft. Their diameter should be that ot 
the flue. Wood will not answer for any part of the flue, 
nor is it safe to use it for the chimney outside. 
Seed Fens. — “ J. P. F.,” Grand Rapids, 
Mich. We arc told on good authority that if peas aro 
placed in a bottle or other closed vessel with a small 
quantity of spirits of turpentine or chloroform, the larva 
of the bect.i« min he destroyed. We have not tried it. 
