1873 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
335 
“Tour potatoes look well,” he said, “and the 
rows are very straight. You must have had an 
Englishman to make the furrows.” 
“No. I marked out the field, first, with a 
common marker. Then made the furrows with 
a steel plow, running the plow along the mark. 
A good English plowman would have made the 
rows, perhaps, just as straight without using 
the marker; but it is very little trouble to mark 
out five or six acres of land, and it insures 
straight rows, and, what is still more important, 
the rows are all the same distance apart, and 
the cultivator can be set wider and run closer 
to the plants. When some of the rows are 
narrow and some wide we have to set the cul¬ 
tivator narrow and run twice in a row.” 
“You do not plant in hills?” 
“ No ; but I am not sure if it is not the better 
way. It saves labor in hoeing and digging, 
and -when the cultivator runs both ways be¬ 
tween the hills it loosens the soil all round the 
hill. I am inclined to think, however, that a 
little manure is the best method of planting.” 
“How long has this timothy meadow been 
down ? ” he asked. 
“Eight years; but I propose to plow it this 
fall.” 
“ You might have plowed it four years ago 
with advantage.” 
“ It is heavy clay land, and I have been wait¬ 
ing until I can underdrain it. Until it is drained 
I am afraid to risk it with wheat. I think I 
shall plow it this fall and summer-fallow it next 
year, plowing three times, and then in August 
or September seed it down with half a bushel 
of timothy to the acre.” 
“ I would sow four or five quarts of clover 
with it also. But if 1 was you I would only 
plow it once. There is considerable wire-grass 
in the land, and it is harder to kill than quack. 
If you plow it this fall, deep and well, and then 
cultivate and harrow it next summer sufficiently 
to keep down all the weeds, you will smother 
the wire-grass, and have a nice mellow surface 
for the grass seed in the fall. I have tried both 
plans, and think this i3 the better. If you plow 
in the spring you turn the wire-grass sod to the 
surface, and it will be certain to grow, and you 
will have no end of labor in killing it.” 
“ Perhaps so. Still, I think if it is not plowed 
in the spring until after we are through corn 
planting, say the first of June, and then plowed 
again in July with the free use of the harrows, 
roller, and cultivator, and then plowed again in 
August and cultivated and harrowed thor¬ 
oughly, there will not be much wire-grass left, 
and the land will not forget such treatment for 
years.” 
“The men are cutting wheat with a new 
Johnston reaper, made for the European mar¬ 
ket. I want you to see the reaper, but do not 
want so good a farmer to see my wheat. It is 
the poorest I have had for many years, and yet 
I summer-fallowed the field, and dressed it also 
with 150 lbs. of pliosphatic blood manure to 
the acre.” 
“ What kind do you raise ? ” 
“ The Diehl.” 
“It won’t do,” he said, “we shall have to 
give it up. We shall have to go back to the 
Mediterranean.” 
“Either that or farm better,” I said, “and for 
my part I mean to stick to the Diehl and try to 
bring my land up to the required standard. 
This year my wheat is on the poorest and most 
run-down field on the farm, and I did not ex¬ 
pect a good crop. But let us go and look at it.” 
“Taking the field together,” he said, “it is 
a good deal better than the average. The 
heads are splendid.” 
I told him John Johnston sent me a head 
that had 65 kernels in it. 
“ There are heads here that will beat that. 
Here is one that I never saw its equal.” 
He shelled it out and counted 88 plump ker¬ 
nels in it. In the meantime I shelled out an¬ 
other good ear and found 80 kernels in it. This 
shows what might be done if we had a good 
stand of plants, and land rich enough to pro¬ 
duce such ears as these. 
“There is one advantage in having such a 
poor wheat crop,” I remarked. “ It does not 
require so many men to bind, and I have sent 
one man to cultivate corn.” 
“As soon as we have finished harvest,” he 
said, “I mean to go through mine once more.” 
“You believe in cultivating late, then,” I 
remarked. 
“ 0 yes,” he replied. “The year before last I 
cultivated my corn the last week in August, 
and sowed the land to wheat on which the corn 
was growing, and I had a good crop of wheat 
except on an acre of clay laud. This I plowed 
up and planted with beans, and had 25 bushels 
of beans, which I sold for $2.50 per bushel.” 
“ Everybody,” I remarked, “ has gone into 
beans this year, and I should think it would 
bring down the price.” 
“I do not think so. Breadstufifs will be scarce 
and high, and there will be an unusual demand 
for beans.” 
I hope this will be so, as it will be a great 
help to farmers in this section. We need some¬ 
thing to make up for the light crop of wheat. 
An Example for Our Agricultural 
Colleges. 
The Royal Agricultural College at Cirences¬ 
ter, in England, after the usual ups and downs 
of such establishments, is at last become a suc¬ 
cessful institution. Young men who study there 
are really taught how to combine “practice 
with science,” and they are thoroughly qualified 
to become good farm managers. Farmer’s 
sons go elsewhere to learn to become lawyers, 
doctors, and clergymen—here, it is their busi¬ 
ness to learn farming. How thoroughly they 
do it may be guessed from the following copy 
of the examination papers of Prof. Wright- 
sou’s class of this year: 
“1. Furnish information on the following 
points regarding the College Farm: Its area; 
proportion of arable to permanent pasture- 
land ; number of work-horses kept; number of 
laborers employed; course of cropping adopted; 
breeds of sheep and pigs maintained. 
“ 2. Show by diagram the best plan of drain¬ 
ing (1) an uniform slope; (2) a valley; (3) a 
valley with a flat area at the bottom. 
“3. In the case of stiff soils on retentive sub¬ 
soils, at what distance apart and at what deptli 
would you place your furrow drains? Also, 
what would be the bore of the pipes used? 
“ 4. What would be about the expense of the 
work executed as proposed in your last answer 
per acre ? 
“5. Describe draining with the mole-plow, 
and say under what conditions this method 
may be recommended. 
“6. Explain the following terms employed 
by writers on land drainage: ‘diffiuent water,’ 
‘ effluent water,’ ‘ reciprocal action of drains,’ 
‘ water table.’ 
“ 7. Show by diagram the conditions under 
which a spring bursts forth from a hill-side. 
“ 8. Under what conditions of soil and sub¬ 
soil may drains be expected to draw extraor¬ 
dinary distances ? 
“ 9. What circumstances influence the quality 
of farm-yard manure, and how is the best qual¬ 
ity of such manure obtained ? 
“ 10. Give data which would enable you to 
estimate the amount of farm-yard manure 
which would be produced on a given farm. 
“11. Explain the term ‘special manure,’ and 
state the conditions under which such manure 
may be used with advantage. 
“ 12. What allowance of cake and corn were 
the ram tegs when on swedes (turnips) receiv¬ 
ing in No. 15 field ? 
“ 13. What is the present condition of each 
section of the sheep stock ? * 
“ 14. When may salt be used as manure ? 
“ 15. Explain the fact that guano is a greater 
favorite as a turnip manure in the north than in 
the south of England.” 
This is a list of propositions which no young- 
man (or old one either) can answer without 
study, careful consideration, and familiarity 
with the practical operations of the farm; and 
such answers can only be prepared by a process 
which will constitute just the sort of training 
that any farmer would be benefited by having. 
Support for a Corn-Crib. 
A rat-proof support for a corn-crib or a 
granary is shown in the engraving. Such an 
article is of vastly more importance than it 
would seem at first sight. The depredations of 
rats and mice amount each year to a much 
greater sum than is supposed. Five per cent of 
the crop is not too great an estimate to set upon 
the damage done by these vermin to corn in 
the crib, while in very many barns the damage 
to smaller grains is of equal proportion. It is 
a difficult matter to make a granary or corn- 
crib rat-proof unless the foundations are pro¬ 
perly arranged. 
With brick or 
timber founda¬ 
tions it can not 
be done; with 
caps of tin over 
the posts it may 
be done, but the 
projecting edges 
of the caps are 
soon knocked out 
support for crib. 0 f s p a p e by vari¬ 
ous accidents, and the enemy, which watch¬ 
es, waits, and works while we sleep, gains 
admission, and before it is noticed much 
damage is done. But by the use of this con¬ 
trivance cribs and granaries may be made com¬ 
pletely rat-proof. The support is made of cast 
iron, and consists of a circular plate eight 
inches in diameter and half an inch thick, gra¬ 
dually thinning towards the edge. To this is 
attached a leg two inches or more in thickness, 
the section of which may be circular or in the 
shape of a cross. This leg should be two feet 
long, and gradually tapering from the plate 
downwards to the foot. Short posts or stones 
may be sunk in the ground where the supports 
are needed, and holes a few inches deep are to 
be drilled in them to receive the foot of the sup¬ 
port, as shown by the dotted lines in the figure. 
The sills of the building are laid upon the 
plates and attached to them by bolts, the holes 
for which are shown in the engraving. The 
supports should be painted, and the holes in 
which the feet of the supports are placed should 
