1870.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
99 
tant directions may be briefly stated again, thus: 
First. —Use tin buckets, hang them on the 
trees and coyer them.... Second. —Use maple 
spiles, turned, bored, and notched in three 
places.... Third. —Use great care to keep dirt 
out, and strain, settle, and skim thoroughly.... 
Fourth. —Gather often, and keep the sap cool 
and sweet... .Fifth. —Scald vats, strainers, buck¬ 
ets and spiles when they show the least signs of 
souring... .Sixth. —Use refuse wood, and house 
it during the dry fall weather... .Seventh .— 
Scald, wash and wipe all the vessels, and put 
up neatly all the fixtures at the close of the 
season, lock the sugar-house door, and every¬ 
thing will be ready at a minute’s notice. 
—-—_•»- 
Fish and Muck Compost 
BY AN OLD SEED GROWER. 
To prepare fish and muck compost, commence 
with three shovels of swamp muck, and spread 
it ®n the ground in a circle, if for a small heap 
of a few barrels of fish pomace, or in a long 
heap fora large quantity; then beat the fish 
fine and scatter one shovelful over the muck, 
and so continue alternately until all is mixed, 
leaving the heap cone-shaped. In about a week 
the heap will begin to heat, and should be turn¬ 
ed and mixed, commencing at one side and 
making all fine with the back of the shovel. 
In a ■week or ten days more, it should be turned 
again. In three ■weeks it will be fine and fit 
for use. It may be kept until wanted to be used, 
but will require further turning if it continues 
to heat. The muck should be damp when 
mixed, or it will not heat sufficiently. Peruvian 
guano and muck, or earth, should be mixed in 
the proportion of six to one of guano. It does 
not heat, but requires the same turning and 
mixing as fish and muck. A handful of either 
in the hill is about the quantity generally used, 
but of the fish compost, more is required than 
of the guano—as much as can be held in the 
hand with the palm uppermost and the fingers 
spread. If thrown into the hole in a heap, it 
should be spread before being covered, to avoid 
the danger of destroying the seed, which never 
should be planted directly upon it. 
Cultivation of the Castor Bean. 
Numerous correspondents in the Southern 
States are making inquiries concerning the cul¬ 
tivation of the Castor Bean, and though there 
are several articles upon the subject in the 
hack volumes, we suppose that to many these 
are not readily accessible, and we here give a 
brief synopsis of the matter. The plant, Ricinus 
communis , is a native of India, is a perennial 30 
or 40 feet high in subtropical countries, but in 
cooler latitudes it is cultivated as an annual. It 
will grow and even perfect a portion of its seed 
in the latitude of New York and farther north, 
hut it can only be cultivated with profit in the 
warmer. States. In Illinois it is stated that the 
yield for the past two years has averaged only 9 
bushels to the acre, (though it has been more 
than this in former years), while in Texas it is 
from 50 to 60 bushels. Land that is capable of 
producing a good crop of corn, is suited to the 
cultivation of the Castor Bean; it is thoroughly 
plowed and harrowed, and marked out with 
furrows at 6 feet apart. At every tenth row a 
space is left wide enough to allow of the pass¬ 
age of a cart to collect the crop. To secure a 
good stand, four seeds are planted at the inter¬ 
sections of the furrows; some scald the seeds, 
allowing them to remain i* the water for twelve 
hours before planting, and then drop, two of the 
seeds with tw® that have not been so treated. 
The scalded ones germinate soonest, and should 
they be cut down by frost, the others will come 
up later and thus save replanting. A bushel of 
seed is sufficient for 18 or 20 acres. The plant¬ 
ing should not be done until frosts are probably 
over. When the plants are well established, all 
but the strongest one in each hill is removed. 
The soil is to be kept mellow and clear of weeds 
by use of the shovel, plow, or other implement, 
and the crusted surface is broken up after heavy 
rains. The clusters or spikes of beans ripen 
unevenly, and they have to be collected every 
few days. The pods, as they ripen, burst, and 
throw the seeds out with considerable force, and 
to avoid waste, the spikes must be gathered as 
soon as they turn a brown color. They are cut, 
thrown into the cart, and carried to the curing- 
house or popping yard. An out-building in which 
to cure the beans, may be fitted up with shelves 
and a stove, or a special building may be put up 
for the purpose. A plan for one was given in 
May, 1867. Where artificial heat is used, it should 
not exceed 120°. An open shed with a floor 
and boards around the sides to prevent the beans 
from escaping, is also used, and the pods are 
dried without artificial heat. Whatever place 
is used as a popping yard, it is necessary to pre¬ 
vent the beans from coming in contact with the 
damp earth, as well as to keep rains from wet¬ 
ting the spikes. After the beans have all pop¬ 
ped out, they are cleaned by being run through 
a fanning-mill. The beans weigh 46 lbs. to the 
bushel. As the pressing of the oil is in the 
hands of a few persons who usually contract 
directly with the growers for the crop, the price 
of the beans is not quoted in the Market Reports. 
Hauling out Manure.— “ W. G. C.,” says: 
Commence dropping the heaps two and a half 
paces from one side of the land to be manured, 
and drop the heaps five paces apart, the whole 
length. Drop the next row five paces from the 
first, commencing half way between the first two 
heaps, breaking joints, as it is called, and so con¬ 
tinue, until the whole is finished. This takes 160 
heaps to the acre. If it is desired to manure pret¬ 
ty heavily, drop five heaps from a one-horse cart, 
which will take 32 loads to the acre. Six heaps 
from the cart take 27 loads. Seven heaps 23 loads. 
Eight heaps 20 loads. An ox-cart or a two-horse 
wagon will hold one or two heaps more. The 
quantity required on an acre must always depend 
upon the quality of the manure, the condition 
of the land, and the kind of crop to be raised. 
Spreading Manure.— In spreading manure* 
care should be taken to scatter it evenly over 
the land, breaking to pieces all large and hard 
lumps. This should always be done immedi¬ 
ately, or not more than half a da)", before plow¬ 
ing, especially if the weather is dry and very 
windy. The manure should be plowed under, 
before it dries very much, or loss will accrue. 
Plowing and Harrowing.— Never plow if 
it can be avoided, or go on to the ground for 
any purpose, when it is wet and sticky. Keep 
the furrows straight, and, if possible, reverse 
them at every plowing, so as to keep the land 
level. To fill in furrows, back-furrow pretty 
widely once around, and haul once around 
very wide; this will generally be sufficient. 
Harrow soon after plowing and before the 
lumps, if any, get dried hard; twice over with 
the teeth down and once with the back of the 
harrow, will prepare the land for ordinary crops. 
Economical Fences, 
Fig. 1. —TWO-FOOT LOG. 
Fencing, under our present systems of Agri¬ 
culture, must be endured, and fences must be 
repaired, made, and well made. In the older 
parts of the country, especially such as were 
originally well wooded, fences made of split 
timber predominate. Where small wood, like 
red cedar, abounds, the “ gun fence ” is not un¬ 
common, and may be made to answer a very 
good purpose. The simple zigzag rail-fence is 
economical only where timber is most abund¬ 
ant ; but, as it 
is the only easi¬ 
ly made wood¬ 
en fence that 
will stand upon 
a bare rock, it 
is necessary to 
use it in some 
places. The 
favorite post- 
and-rail-fence is 
fast going out of 
fashion, where 
labor in winter, 
and timber have 
a ready market, as they have almost everywhere 
within 10 miles of a railroad. A bungling, un¬ 
skillful hand will waste timber wofully in split¬ 
ting for posts and rails. Holing is slow work 
for the best farm hands we can hire now-a-days, 
and whoever trusts the job of sharpening rails 
to any ordinary hand, will be sure to rue it if 
he has the fence to set. The waste of timber is 
most obvious in rail-splitting as compared with 
sawing. To illustrate this, 
we give the drawing of one 
end of an oak log measur¬ 
ing 2 feet in diameter. One 
half of this is marked to be 
split into 4 triangular rails 
about 5 inches deep and 
4 wide, and 12 flat rails 
7 inches deep and 3 wide, 3 - 28-inch log. 
making 24 flat and 8 heart rails out of the stick. 
The other half is marked to show how, after 
taking off the slabs, the whole stick would cut 
up into not less than 14 20-inch boards, and at 
least 10 others. These would rip into 70 or 
more 4-inch, ten 5-incli, and ten 6-inch strips. 
The same log, if 13 feet long, split, would af¬ 
ford rail material for 125 ft., or about 7‘| 2 rods 
of 4-rail post-and-rail-fence; or, sawed, it would 
make strips for 130 feet, or 2 feet <iess than 8 
rods of fence made with one 6-inch, one 5-inch, 
and three 4-inch strips capped and battened, and 
leaving twenty to twenty-five 4-inch strips over. 
We have no doubt three-quarter-inch oak strips, 
well nailed and battened, will last longer than 
split rails of the same wood or of chestnut. 
Posts are another matter; the greater econ¬ 
omy of sawing or splitting depends entirely 
upon the size of the logs. Chestnut sticks, 6 
to 10 inches in diameter, will make two good 
posts each. An 8-incli, half-round post is hard¬ 
ly large enough to hole; but a 10-inch, half- 
round one may be holed, and makes as good a 
post as can be desired, for post-and-rail-fence. 
A 10-inch stick will make four posts for a strip 
fence, and when looks are not set much by, are 
as good as if sawed. For a post-and-rail-fence, 
split posts are almost a necessity; but there is 
no economy in splitting posts out of large logs. 
Figure 2 shows a 28-inch log, marked for split¬ 
ting into 24 rather thin posts, or for sawing into 
sixteen 4x8 pieces, which will each make 2 posts 
5 x 4 at one end and 3x4 the other—32 in all. 
