298 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
that almost every thing will grow here. Beauti¬ 
ful cotton, hemp, flax, a variety of fruit trees, 
flowers, and vegetables, all thrive here, though 
of course to a limited extent; but much more 
could be\ grown were New-Englanders on the 
soil. Sheep of a fine breed, both for mutton and 
wool, are the principal stock; while donkies 
are the poor man’s friend here as every where, 
living on the prickly pears and furze that grow 
in wild profusion all over the Island. But I 
must defer a more particular account of the 
Island till another time, when I may give you a 
further sketch for your paper. G. W. K, 
DEGENERACY OF COTTON SEED. 
It can be no longer questioned that the cotton 
seed, in many parts of our country is fast degen 
erating, and we hear frequent complaints from 
the planters on this subject. 
The plants, in many places, are not so vigor¬ 
ous in growth nor in quantity and quality pro¬ 
duced as formerly. We are assured that the 
staple of the cotton is being seriously affected 
by this degeneration of the cotton seed. Yarious 
reasons are assigned. One thinks it is owing to 
the condition of the soil or the weather; another 
thinks it is owing to the defective manner of 
culture; “ I must change my seed,” says a third; 
and thus a variety of conjectures are started. 
The reason of this degeneration is made to ap¬ 
pear when we consider that, year after year, 
our planters pitch their crops with seed taken 
promiscuously from the field. In the very nature 
of things it must dwindle and become dwarfish 
in the course of time; and notwithstanding it 
depreciates under their eyes, they still pursue 
the insane policy. Upon the same principle 
your stock of horses, cattle, or hogs would de¬ 
generate and run out. We do not wonder, 
therefore that your cotton is seriously affected— 
you do nothing to improve it—to give vigor of 
of growth or constitution. 
There is no need to change your seed—all that 
you have to do is to pass through your fields 
and select your seed from those plants that ex¬ 
hibit most vigor of growth and produce the 
greatest number of bolls. Plant those by them¬ 
selves, and then cull again as before; or else 
select a few acres, and plant it exclusively with 
the best seed, selected as above, and in one or 
two years you will have superior seed, if not 
better than can be obtained any where else. If 
you are too negligent or lazy to make the neces¬ 
sary improvements, no complaints should fall 
from your lips. 
The famous seeds, about which so much is 
said, and for which such high prices are paid, 
have been brought up to this high state of cul¬ 
ture by the means stated above, and by proper 
crossing kept up for a series of years. 
Try the plan indicated, and you will find a vast 
improvement in the quality and quantity of 
your cotton.— Southefn Organ. 
many watering places are so steep that cattle 
are compelled to go down on their knees before 
they can reach it, and even then they obtain it 
with the greatest difficulty. The cattle on many 
farms are obliged to travel from one-fourth to 
half a mile for water, and when they arrive at 
the spot, it is often only to be obtained by them 
through a hole cut in the ice, perhaps from a 
foot to eighteen inches in thickness. The 
amount of manure which is dropped and lost on 
such occasions is very considerable, and much 
of it is washed d$vn by the rains into the hole 
at which they are doomed to drink, where it 
forms a coffee-colored beverage, awful to behold 
Every good farmer will esteem this as a matter 
of no light importance, considering that all the 
manure ought to be saved, and calculating that 
the food of cattle might as properly be wasted 
as the food of plants. It has been thought that 
the exercise of going to water at a considerable 
distance, is advantageous in preventing the 
hoof-ail in cattle; but it is much more likely 
that this disorder often arises from the filth in 
wet weather, and freezing of the feet in very 
severe weather, to which they are exposed in 
their walks to the spring. If cattle are kept in 
well-sheltered yards, with sheds for their pro¬ 
tection, with uninterrupted access to good water, 
plenty of salt, and warm beds of dry straw, it 
should not be too much to promise that they 
will remain free from the foot-ail and every other 
ail” of which we have so much complaint. 
There is a strong prejudice against wells for the 
supply of water in cattle yards, and there is a 
much stronger prejudice against the labor of 
pumping the water for them ; but to an iudus- 
trious man, the “ prejudice” of a desire to fur¬ 
nish his cattle with a clean and wholesome bev¬ 
erage, cool in the summer and warm in the win¬ 
ter, will be stronger than either.— Franklin 
Repository. 
Fresh Isabella Grapes in Januarv.— We 
are indebted to George Clapp, Esq., of Au 
burn, N. Y., for a box of delicious Isabella 
grapes, raised from his grapery last season, and 
preserved in cotton up to this time. The speci¬ 
mens sent us were as fresh, and retained their 
flavor as perfectly as though just plucked from 
the vine. It may interest some of our readers 
to know the process by which they were pre¬ 
served, which was simply by placing the clus¬ 
ters between layers of cotton, in a box, until it 
was full, and then covering it, to exclude the 
air as much as possible.— Scientific American. 
WATER CATTLE IN THEIR YARDS. 
If water cannot be obtained by cattle with¬ 
out going out of the yard, they will many times 
suffer exceedingly for the want of it, rather than 
go for it in very bad weather. If good fresh 
water can be had by them without going out of 
the yard, they will drink very much oftener 
than in the other case, especially in cold weather. 
The oldest and strongest cattle will generally go 
first to water; and when they have drunk, and 
are returning, they will meet the young cattle 
in the narrow snow path, and of course will 
drive them back; in which case the youngest 
and feeblest of the herd will have much trouble 
and vexation in obtaining water at all. When 
cattle go to a spring to drink, especially if the 
snow is deep, there will generally be great diffi¬ 
culty in reaching the water on account of the 
bank of snow and ice, without stepping into it 
which cattle are loth to do if they can help it! 
CLAIMS OF AGRICULTURAL PATENTS 
ISSUED FOR THE WEEK ENDING JAN. 3, 1854. 
Corn Shellers. —By G. A. Xander, of Ham¬ 
burgh, Pa.: I claim the improvement on the 
cylinder disc, that is its oval shape, the spring- 
being attached to the side all as set forth. 
I would further state that by riveting two half 
cylinders together, the cylinder may as readily 
be constructed double as in fig. No. 2, A ; and 
should I find it more practicable to construct 
them as in fig. 2, A, I therefore do not limit my 
claim, merely to the single, but also to the dou¬ 
ble cylinder. 
Hay and Manure Forks. —By Reuben M. 
Hines, of Mentz, N. Y., (assignor to Horace 
C. Silsby, of Seneca Falls, and Reuben M. Hines, 
of Mentz, N. Y): I claim the fork with the up¬ 
per part of its prongs and its tang, constructed 
as described, in combination with the ferrule, 
the sockets, and slot, as described. 
Improvement in Straw Cutters.—William 
S. Dillehay, of the County of Shelby, Ky.: I 
claim the diagonal knife with two edges, in com¬ 
bination with the moveable scraper, with its 
proper appendages, and the manner of its move¬ 
ments parallel with the edges of the knife, 
thereby cleaning the guage-table of all the cut 
straw. 
- » -- 
Foreign Patent.— Making Manure. —E. T. 
Simpson, of Wakefield, York, Eng. This method 
of making manure, consists in taking woolen 
rags, shoddy, and other waste products of wool, 
and dissolving them with an acid, such as nitric, 
exposed to artificial heat, and then combining 
the fluid so obtained with bones, coprolites, or 
animal charcoal.— Ibid. 
CUTTING AND GRINDING CORN STALKS. 
Wm. G. Huyett, of Williamsburg, Pa., has 
invented an improvement in machines for the 
the above purpose, on which he has applied for 
a patent. His invention consists in the employ¬ 
ment of a revolving cutting knife in combination 
with a revolving disc, both secured on the same 
shaft, and revolving simultaneously. The knife 
is of such a shape, and is so arranged in relation 
to the feed, hopper and grinding disc that it 
serves to cut up the stalks and prepare them 
and feed them to the grinding disc, which turns 
in a toothed concave, grinding them as fast as 
cut. If this machine should work well it will be 
a very useful invention.— Scientific American. 
CORN HARVESTERS. 
Gardner A. Bruce, of Mec’nanicsburg, Ill., has 
invented an improvement in Machines for har¬ 
vesting corn stalks, on which he has applied for 
a patent. The nature of the invention consists 
in so arranging the cutters that they will be 
caused to revolve and cut in an upward direction, 
and after cutting the stalks will give them a di¬ 
rection toward the center of the machine. Inclined 
revolving shafts are also employed with arms 
for bendingand holding the stalks while being cut, 
and afterward throwing them into the receiver 
at the center of the machine. The propelling- 
wheels are each provided with a separate axle, 
so that an open space is thus left at the center, 
and two revolving shafts with radial arms, in 
combination with a spring catch are employed 
for holding the stalks until a bundle is collected. 
-Ibid, 
How to Make Hens do their Duty.— The 
happiest days in our virtuous life have been 
spent in the country. There’s where we fas¬ 
tened virtue on us, drove in the nails and 
clinched them on the inside, to make a sure 
thing of it. This virtue is a great thing, and 
among other good effects, it leads us all to do all 
the good we can to assist our fellows to the 
fruits of our experience. The following may be 
servicable to our farmer friends. 
One day, in our youth, while on the magni¬ 
ficent farm of Mrs. Nancy Smalleye, we watched 
her struggling with a fractious hen biddy, which 
she had seized by the legs, and was resolutely 
bearing from the hen-roost. The screams of 
the fowl were truly awful, and she spread her 
feathers some, and indulged in sundry fierce 
pecks at the under-pinnings of Mrs. Smalleye, 
evidently dissatisfied with the undignified mode 
of her conveyance. 
“ What are you going to do with her ?” asked 
we; “ going to have a stew for dinner ?” 
‘A stew? No child,” was the answer. 
“ Fetch me a tub from the shed and I’ll show 
you.” 
The tub was speedily brought. 
“ Turn it upside-down,” said she. 
We did as we were bid, wondering what was 
to be done with the biddy. 
Immediately Mrs. Smalleye clapped the en¬ 
raged hen under the tub, and with a triumphant 
voice exclaimed— 
“ There now, stay there you pesky critter. I’ll 
have it out of you to-day, or you shan’t have a 
mouthful of wittles.” 
“Have what out of her?” inquired we, in a 
perfect cloud of innocent unsophisticaticity. 
“ The egg of course,” said she. 
“ Why you can’t make a hen lay an egg, can 
you?” 
“Poor child!” said Mrs. Smalleye with up¬ 
lifted eyes and a compassionate smile upon our 
ignorance. “ You don’t know how I do it. 
You see, dear Willie, hens will get lazy like 
