1870.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
^-47 
manure? ancl what is the season of sowing?”—Spurrey 
does well on sandy soils, in a warm moist climate—under 
such circumstances, sown in the spring, a heavy crop of 
forage or of green manure may be obtained. It does not 
at all stand well our hot, dry summers. They stop its 
growth almost immediately. Where it has been sown it 
is afterwards known as a road-side weed, but we believe 
it is never troublesome. It matures in three months or 
less, according to the richness of the soil and the climate. 
—The seeds are highly nutritious, and it may be fed 
to any kind of stock. 
Sale el F Mi*. Slicltlon’s I'ai'iu,—We 
have received the following letter from Mr. Sheldon: 
Geneva, N. Y., June 2,1870. My Dear Sir ,—In conse¬ 
quence of recent illness in my family, our physician ad¬ 
vises us to travel for the next few years, and I have de¬ 
cided to offer my farm for sale. As you know all about 
it, you can well imagine the pain this decision has cost 
mo, but my duty to my family seems imperative, and I 
must make the sacrifice. Very sincerely yours, Jajies 
O. Sheldon.- IVe deeply regret the necessity of this 
decision. We can ill afford to spare Mr. Sheldon from 
American agriculture. We need his example. We have 
always pointed to his career as a farmer and breeder with 
pride. Wo have admired his energy and “pluck.” 
When he first “turned farmer” his city friends pre¬ 
dicted that he would soon tire of it, and what is still 
harder to bear, his farmer neighbors seemed to have an¬ 
ticipated a similar result. And, as if to justify these dis¬ 
heartening opinions, lie met at the commencement of his 
breeding career with .many losses. Several of his most 
valued Shorthorn cows and calves died. Ilis magnificent 
flock of South-Down sheep were kept in a separate barn 
in charge of a man who had a cow of his own in the 
building. One night the barn caught, fire and the man 
ran to save his own cow and left the whole flock of 
South-Downs to perish in the flames. We presume Mr. 
S. owes his success to these losses. They did not dis¬ 
courage him. They were necessary, though a costly part 
of his agricultural education. They taught him care and 
caution, and with a due exercise of them, he seems to 
have had unbounded faith in himself and in improved 
breeding and farming. He has triumphed gloriously. 
When he purchased the farm it was remarkable fur 
nothing, but the beauty of its situation, the grandeur of 
its trees, and the charm of the land scenery. The land, 
though naturally good, was poor and weedy. He drained 
it, cleared it, purchased large quantities of bran and 
other cattle food, made rich manure and applied it to his 
grass land until now he has one of the handsomest, rich¬ 
est, cleanest, and most productive farms in the State, 
with a large herd of cattle second to none in the world. 
It does seem as though we could not spare such a man. 
We can only hope that the farm will fall into the hands 
of some one who will still use it for rearing choice stock. 
f®erikiiis «& Mouse's Intnip. —A lamp 
for burning kerosene, made by Perkins & House, called 
the “Non-Explosive,” has been used with much satis¬ 
faction by several persons connected with the office of 
the Agriculturist. The lamp is a metallic one and easily 
taken care of. The inventors claim, with good reason, 
that its construction renders explosion impossible. We 
attach but little importance to this, as oil which will ex¬ 
plode should not be burned in any lamp. A large share 
of the accidents from unsafe oil do not occur from explo¬ 
sions within the lamp, but from carelessness in filling.— 
At all events, the lamp is a good one, vastly safer than 
any glass lamp, and when used with the best oil, gives a 
brilliant and pleasant light. 
A Knn.tlowii Virfi'inia Farm.— In 
“Walks and Talks” for June, some advice is given to 
one who lias recently purchased an exhausted farm in 
Virginia. This has called out several letters, from one 
of which, by G. Child, we give the following extract: 
“ First. Let him cut down the pines, and trim the brush 
off them, and put them in the gullies or washes—put the 
brush in first, and the poles or logs on top, to hold it 
down. Very soon, briars and grass will come up out of 
the bottom of the washes, and they and the brush will 
form a mass that will prevent more washing.Second. 
To accumulate manure, let him hire a superannuated 
freedman—he can hire one for a little more than his 
board—and set him to piling up leaves and wood mold 
(that is, the top surface formed by rotting leaves), in his 
woodlands. When he has ten to twenty loads in a heap, 
throw dirt and rotten wood on it, to make it rot quick 
and thoroughly. If this is done in June, the manure 
will be fit to spread on the galled fields and plow in next 
fall for spring crops. It is the best cheap remedy I know 
of for exhausted clay lands. If his woodlands are all pine 
it won’t do, as pine straw is of no account.Third. To 
plow heavy bottom lands, set a sharp coulter in a beam, 
as in the engraving, and cut the sod into slices, the same 
width of tlje furrow of u two-horse plow, When you 
have gone around the land twice—that is, when you have 
cut oft' one slice, start the plow after the coulter, and 
turn the slice over, and the furrow, thus opened, will be 
a guide for the lead horse of the coulter to walk in, so 
that the man driving tho coulter can cut his slice the 
same width every time. The coulter should go 10 to 12 
inches in the ground, and it will take two horses to pull 
.it if it is like the sodl had to deal with. Tho two-horse 
plow will find but little difficulty in turning over the 
slices after they are cut if it is a good Livingston or 
Clipper.Fourth. Sheep are the best thing to kill 
briars, but they kill everything else first. Then sheep 
won’t do in Virginia, as there is no tax on doge, and 
every vagabond owns and starves from two to ton worth¬ 
less cur-. I was saved the expense of the sheep experi¬ 
ment by the experience of a neighbor who, out of sixty, 
only saved five sheep—and he didn't save them—he ate 
them, to save the dogs tho trouble. He killed and poi¬ 
soned about twenty dogs, and got the ill-will of his 
worthless neighbors. I hope the New England gentle¬ 
man will find his investment profitable, and I know he 
will be astonished at the recuperative power of the red 
clay and limestone lands of Virginia.” 
ISooBfis Acknowledged. 
Independent First Deader. By A. Madison Watson. A. 
S. Barnes & Co. 25 cents. 
Tomato Raising in Common Gardens. By Horace Taylor, 
Canandaigua; N. Y. A pamphlet of 1(1 pages. It gives 
the method of starting the plants, training, trimming, 
etc., and is especially adapted to the northern latitudes, 
where the tomato needs much care, in order to'ripcn it 
successfully. The suggestions given for training will, if 
followed, increase the quality of the fruit. 
The History of Hortense, Daughter of Josephine, Queen 
of Holland, and Mother of Napoleon III. By John S. C. 
Abbott. N. Y.: Harper & Brothers. 
The Household Treasury. Philadelphia: Claxton, 
Remsen & Haillefinger. This is a neat book, into which 
various household recipes may be copied, classified under 
their proper heads, and indexed. Each division has a 
neat vignette, and appropriate motto. 
The Vicar of liullhampton. By Anthony Trollope. N. 
Y.: Harper & Brothers. 
Missouri Agricukural Report for 1809. We have re¬ 
ceived from Mr. C. W. Murtfeldt, Secretary, the report 
of the Missouri State Board of Agriculture, which, be¬ 
sides the Secretary’s report, contains essays, proceed¬ 
ings of societies, and the valuable report of the State 
Entomologist. 
The American Tune Book. Boston: Oliver Ditson & 
Co. A collection of sacred music by five hundred edi¬ 
tors. $1.50. 
The Life of Bismarck. By John George Louis llesc- 
kiel. Translated by Kenneth R. II. McKenzie. New 
York: Harper & Brothers. 
Memoir of the Rev. John Scudder , M. I).. Thirty-six 
years a Missionary in India. By Rev. J. B. Waterbury, 
D. D. New York: Harper & Brothers. 
Conjugal Sins against the Laws of Life and Health. 
By A. K. Gardner, M, D. New York: J. S. Redfield. 
Sesti&5»erJi«a»j*- —“ Novice,” Scott 
Co., Iowa. It will be of no more use for you to try to 
grow this grape than it would be to undertake to raise 
pineapples. 
Cotiovcr’s Colos.^sttB.—Mr. Abram Van 
Sicklen, of Jamaica, L. I., sent us a bunch of Conover’s 
Colossal Asparagus, which contained twenty-five stalks 
and weighed six pounds. 
l*a.imt£mg' a. Tree. - We published the 
desperate remedy, applied for bark-louse, by. Mr. D. A. 
Norris, of Greenville, Ct., and thinking his success was 
an exceptional one, remarked that we did not commend 
the practice. Mr. N. writes: “ I will only say that the 
tree I painted, two years ago, lifts made a growth of four 
feet and three inches, with a diameter of three-fourths 
of an inch at the but; and it blossomed and set so full 
this spring that, unless at least three-fourths of the fruit 
drop off, I shall he obliged to thin it. Now, if any one 
can beat that in two yeure, on a sick tree, I should like 
to sec the tree. Mine was a desperate case. I tried 
painting as a desperate experiment. I succeeded be¬ 
yond my expectations. I know of no healthier looking 
nor thriftier tree than the one I painted, and I don’t think 
any man can find a louse on it. I found some lice on an¬ 
other tree last year, and I painted that, and it is doing ns 
well as the first one. I am perfectly satisfied with tho 
experiment. That it has proved a success with me is ac¬ 
knowledged by all that have seen the trees.” 
'Flic IIiiiitly-Book of Mit^InsiHlry. 
By George E. Waring, Jr., of Ogden Farm, Draining En¬ 
gineer, etc. New York: E. B. Treat & Co. Sold by sub¬ 
scription, at $3.50. As a rule, wo have not noticed those 
agricultural works which are sold by subscription, for 
two reasons: 1st, the works sold as this is have gen¬ 
erally been the merest trash, made to sell in this way by¬ 
writers whose productions would never meet with a sale 
in the regular trade. 2d, the few subscription books 
that we have noticed have brought us numerous letters 
asking where they could ho had, information which we 
were unable to give. In tho present work both these 
objections are avoided. The hook is a good one, and ar¬ 
rangements have been made by which such of our rend¬ 
ers as choose to do so, muy obtain it. Those who have 
read the “Og(Jeu Farm Papers” do not need to be told 
that Col. Waring is a pleasant writer, as well as a 
thorough-going, practical farmer. In the present work 
he gives an outline of farm operations, commencing 
with buying or leasing a farm, and discussing farm 
building, drainage, manure, implements, animals, etc., 
and all in a clear and practical manner. A considerable 
space is given to the steam plow, as the author foresees 
that tho time is soon at hand when a method of prepar¬ 
ing the soil, so common in England, must be adopted 
here, where practicable. A very full set of useful tables 
adds much to the value of the work. The book is pro¬ 
duced in good style, and we take pleasure in commend¬ 
ing both its exterior and jts contents as a marked excep¬ 
tion to the agricultural works sold by subscription that 
have fallen under our notice. 
Scveuty-livc B*opnlai* Flowers, 
and Slow to Cultivate Then!. By Edward 
Sprague Rand, Jr. Boston: J. E. Tilton & Co. This 
work is mainly made up of articles which have appeared 
in Tilton’s Journal, and which have been thought worthy 
of preservation in a book form. The author, in his pre¬ 
face, claims indulgence, or we should be disposed tocrit- 
icise the carelessness which marks the botanical portions 
of the work. For the rest it is a clever guide to the cul¬ 
tivation of some of our most popular flowers. 
Five XtionsamB si Yesir, 58 se<0 Sb«>w 
I made It in Five YeaYs’ Time, Starting 
without Capital.— -By Edward Mitchell, Luring, 
Boston. Books like this do an incalculable amount of 
mischief, ns they present gardening operations in a way 
that no practical man ever found them, and lead men who 
have no knowledge of the subject into investments and 
enterprises which are very sure to end in disaster. Wo 
hope that this Mr. or Mrs. Gilman-Baruard-Mitchell will 
soon exhaust the subject, and “ let us have peace.” 
In Staicking- Hay or Ciiraiu, keep tho 
middle of the stack very full all the time and thor¬ 
oughly trodden down, so that the sides will settle more 
than the middle. Put some straw or long hay on tho 
roof, and rake it down smooth. And do not bo ashamed 
to put some poles on each side of the stack to keep it, 
from settling to one side. 
Agricultural and Horticultural Fairs for 
1870. 
We shall, as usual, prepare a list of Fairs, with the 
time and place they are to be held, and desire to have it 
as complete as possible. We will thank Secretaries and 
other officers of Societies to send us copies of Premium 
Lists or newspaper notices, announcing the time of the 
Fairs—or to write to ns, giving the name of the Society 
or Club, the State, with the place where, and when the 
fair is to be, adding also the name of the Secretary or 
business manager. Our list of fairs to bo held in July 
and August so far is quite a small one. 
The Minnesota State Horticultural Society holds a fair 
at Minneapolis, in connection with the Hennepin Co. 
Horticultural Society, July 4th. There is to be a 
Horse Show at EUicottvillr, N. Y., July 4th and Gth. 
The Carolina Horticultural Society makes a show at 
Wilmington, N. C., Aug. 11th, and in 
Parks Co., Ind., there will he a fair nt Bloomingdale, 
Aug, 24th to ?6th, and one at Bridgeton 2SKU to Sept. 3d, 
