m:.] 
AMERICAN AORTCULTURIST, 
87 
Itomiitor'w llnnuro ITIctUod. —Tes, 
■wc (lid cct hold of »omi* old pamphlet* which were form- 
•tIt eold, with the patent, for $10, and offer them for 115 
rents, wlth'>ut any jwitent. Wc told our readers tliat the 
patent wa» »o old tliat It liad b- come public property. I* 
it not, then, a'l’-nrd to claim that we pnt it out as »omo- 
thlni: new, or Intimate tliat we tritnl to deceive about It. 
Our readers know that the method is old. They m.sy 
V 11 w '-nder, as we do, that a patent was ever granted, 
and that it w.as pronounced valid. That does not alter 
the ca»e, nor make the method of le** value, to whoever 
doe* not know it. Wo remember well to have »een what, 
w o presume, was the very same method, in use in Switaer- 
land, 12 y> ars ago, and saw it also described, •uhstantial- 
ly, by an cnthiuiastlc Swis* agriculturist, who termed 
hwltz .rUiid ••the native country of the proud dung heap;” 
and we have often described, and urged upon our readers, 
practice very similar to Hommer’s. Neverthele**, we think 
the book Is worth much more than it* price CiSc) to every 
farmer in the country. We would bo happy to sell to 
Ike Country 0<nUtman as many copies os ho wants for his 
readers, at the usual discount, oue-third off, for cash. 
Hope for fhr I'armrr*’ Cliil>. — 
The people who asscmlile under the name of the '• Farm- 
*r»^ (. iuh •’ did not like the article, last month, headed 
“Si-nfe at the Fanners’ Club." Of course they didn’t. 
It wai intended a* medicine, and they were expected to 
s(|uirm under itc operation, but it did them much gixid. 
In 'he n port of the meeting of Januao' 32d, Uiere were 
only six •• medical " article*, and in that of January ‘29th, 
only two ! -a recovery more rapid than that of any patient 
w'.io will follow their published prescriptions. Here i* a 
s-vclmcn of the effects produced by our etricturcs, from 
the report of the meeting of January 29th : 
- MwaotiMul of ttu Club.—hn agricultural p.npcr in 
thli -itv speak* of our club a.s b«ing more comic than 
wi*e aiid ns having better talker* than fanners. Now and 
then! there is an Uhmaelite boy skulking through the lots. 
When he sees othei Imy* enjoying themselves together, 
nothing plca-es him mure tlian to throw a stone, w hat 
can he expect ? 
•• Iloys enjoying themselves together ” la a capital fig¬ 
ure, and shows that the club possess the rare ability *■ to 
see ourselves as others se* us." " Ishmaclite is also 
good, and hints at a commendable kind of reading. 
Nwcot I»otiafoe«.— Several, who hare made 
Inquiries about Sw<K?t Potato culture, will be glad to know 
that we have an article in type fWim an cxperieuced culti- 
Tftlor which will appear m •eaaon. 
Ctitaloffucj* Arlinowlcdjresl.— S eeds. 
—.K. Bridgeman, STfS Broadway, N. Y., Vegetable Seeds. 
J. M. Thorbum & Co.”", Flower Seeds and Spring 
Bulbs . James J. II. Gregory, Marblehead, Mass., includ¬ 
ing many novelties .. .Collins, Anderson & Co., VegeU- 
hles and Flowers, with very full descriptions. 
GesKnAL XuitsEtiT Stock.— J.W. Dodgo & Son, Po¬ 
mona .Nursery. Cumberland County. Tenn. . Ilusmann A 
Msnw.sring. Hermann. Mo ...Calvin S. Goddard, Fver- 
greens and Fruit Trees, Portland, Me.John Saul, 
Washington, I). C. ; Boses a specialty. 
Sjiall Fri-its.— William Backer, Philadelphia, Pa.... 
Thomas C. Andrews, Moorcstown, Burlington County, N. 
J Johnston’s Nursery, South Bend, Ind.Geo. M. 
Campbell, Delaware. O., full descripUon of grapes. 
Fdohists’ Plants. -Ellwanger & Barry, Rochester N. 
Y .Joseph W. Vestal, Cambridge City, Wayno Co., Ind. 
Wines —F- C. Brithm, Waterloo, New York. 
'I'll© IVetatei-n Ae-sr York: Fruit 
rosror*’ Soclety.-Thc interruption of travel by 
,c great snow storm, prevented our attending the meeting 
, January, as we had intended. Wc observe by the; i^- 
Brt in the Country GentUmarx, that the time was chiefly 
-cupied In disen-sing the grape question A great deal 
as said about different varieties, but we do not find that 
tiything new was elicited. A vote was taken on the ques- 
on •• What one variety of grapes is best for garden cul- 
,re In Western New York?" The Delaware was he 
holce of the majority. We do not see any report of the 
.h. b.... It would b._.uiur it wur. d 
,h.t are the limits of “ Western New York, for which 
lie Delaware 1* considered the best. 
Idtirsr© 
• A Brown, Btockbrldge, Vermont, sowed the pr^nct 
,r an accidental head of barley found in a field 
he nroduct of four grains was 1,411 grains, 
lad twenty-three large, fine, full head*. ^ g'^! 
by lUelf in good soil, will develop- wonderfully. Se 
ec'tlon Of heavy" seed will do much. Cu'iing the arg . 
all ripe heads, and saving for sowing only 
trains from them, will greatly Improj the result, but th^ 
dimax Is reached by very thin sowing In drill , g - 
hand culture, weeding and hoeing, and continuing this 
with the most careful cnlling of heads and stdcction of seed 
by weight year after year. The improvement is rapid. 
Xl»o SurprSsic Onf s .—This, 'Which claims 
to be a new variety of oat, is put before the public with 
apparent good faith on the part of the proprietors. The 
claim is that one Van Olinda, near Sandwich, DeKalb 
County, Ill., found some strangely bearded oats growing 
among some other grain (Patcnt-OfRce wheat if wc mis¬ 
take not.) We have seen what purports to be some of this 
original seed, and it looks almost exactl}’ like the wild 
oat, from which it is known that our cultivated varieties 
sprung, and to which it is supposed that, under some cir¬ 
cumstances, they revert. After several years of care aud 
culture the result is claimed to be that a very plump, 
heavy, prolific, early variety is established free from the 
bristly beards, and every way a first-rate oat. IVe have 
no means of knowing whether the surveyor, who claims 
to have measured the 128 square rods of ground on which 
3T5 bushels of oats grew, knew anything about his busi¬ 
ness or not, or whether he is an honest man. We don’t 
know whether the weight of the oats was taken properly 
or not. They may have been weighed in bags, no deduo 
tions made, and the total weight simply divided by thirty- 
two, the weight of the legal bushel of oats. The state¬ 
ments in the circular arc unsatisfactory and meager, and 
there is a concealment of the fact that the 1.3.3 bushels per 
acre, means bushels of .32 pounds each, weighed as soon 
as thrashed. If the weighing had been done in Decem¬ 
ber the results would have required a different statement, 
and wc presume also that the 45 pounds which the 
measured bushel is said to weigh may be subject to the 
same drawback. Wc have admitted the advertisement 
because the proprietors appeared to be fair, honest men, 
aud certainly showed us a very excellent sample of oats. 
Selocf iitpT S©ctl lor Sowing^. 
—Take out the screens, except perhaps the top one, and 
arrange the fan-mill for giving the strongest and evenest 
blast. Then run the grain through, saving the heaviest 
half, and repeating the operation upon this several times. 
Ijiood Scc<1k.—“ Where can I get good 
jeeds ? ” is the purport of a dozen letters now on file, 
line says that he is poorer by a thousand dollars than he 
rt-ould have been if he had had good seeds last year. We 
believe that all the seedraen who advertise with us in¬ 
tend to send good seeds. Much of their stock, imported 
and othenvise, is bought upon good faith in others, and 
they may sometimes be deceived. One writes us that 
Tom Thumb Peas grew from eight inches to five feet, and 
were growing yet. We do not know a seedman who 
would intentionally mix seeds. Much of the failure is 
attributable to the sower, who sows too early, or too 
deeply. There is not a seedman of our acquaintance who 
has not been denounced to us as a swindler, and not one 
who has not been praised to us as the best of all his craft. 
There is no business in which a reputation is more essen¬ 
tial simply as a business investment, than that of the seed- 
man, and no one who expected to continue long in tne 
business would, simply as a matter of policy, sell a thing 
if known to be iintnie. Scedmen are human and may 
err, and b« deceived, and so with the purchasers. Let 
11 * encourage home grown secds,and then we can be able 
tn itft source. 
Span-roof Cold Grapery.- Con- 
Reader.” Much will depend upon your notions as 
Tie Make out a plain statement of just what you 
and *end to John Ellis, White Plains, N. Y or 
^’rs. Woodward, No. 37 Park Row, N. Y., U.ey 
give you estimates, and, of course, will expect to be 
for their trouble. 
led FcsiS®*! Foenst.—What shall they 
u Kansas ?^L. A. Aldcrson, of Atchison, thus states 
'ase • “ Last September we were visited by the Red 
.ed Locust ‘^clmdo 
’committed such depredation f 
itann. They spread over our entire Stat , 
weather tlioy advanceil about fitly ^ ‘ 
■i They devoured all our buckwheat, turnips, to 
o, ."lost of the grao. fodder, and •" J - 
at that had boo. .own 
rwS1'h';r“nd’L^fi wet, tboy will 
nil Bean untouched by them, uui r mi 
tor Oil Bean pepper and a quid of 
1 .kiLS h.tci.edih. 
" .-. ..ja* 
lava of the iireccediiig full, leave about the first of July; 
but this is too late for most of our crops.” 
Beans, Peas, Millet, Oats, to cut for fodder. Com for 
fodder. Buckwheat, Turnips, Rutabagas and Tobacco if 
the seed beds can be protected, are what we think of as 
most likely to produce a crop after July 1st; but their 
success depends on your having no second crop of locusts, 
and these are usually most abundant in August aud later. 
■fflse for Hickory Witlic. —W. G. War¬ 
ing, of Tyrone, Pa., says, tliat w-hen plowing he broke a 
clevis, and adapting a strong wdthc, cut from a neighbor¬ 
ing hickory, to the situation, it held well, endured the 
draft all day, and saved an hour’s time of man and team. 
Sciisikle.—At a meeting of delegates from 
seventy-five of the Ohio County Agricultural Societies 
recently held at Columbus, Ohio, the following resolution 
was adopted. We hope tliat the agriculturists of other 
States will do likewise. “ That the Convention adhere to 
the resolutions adopted at the session of 1865, and again 
indorsed in 1806, in favor of one College under the Con¬ 
gressional grant, and opposed to the division of the fund. 
TSflC Anacricam .^otiritaal of Horti¬ 
culture and. Florists Companion.— Boston, 
J. E. Tilton & Co. Monthly, 04 pages, at $3 per year. The 
Januurj' and February numbers of this journal have been 
received. We did not notice the first number, as the 
publishers apologized for its want of variety and stated 
that it had been ” issued under many disadvantages.” 
The second number contains no such apology, and -we 
suppose it is intended as a specimen of wliat we may ex¬ 
pect, and as several have asked onr opinion upon it, we 
will say that it is a very handsome magazine, on excellent 
paper and in beautiful type, and is wonderfully cheap. 
The publishers deserve much credit for giving so many 
pages for so little money. Why it is called an “ Amencan 
Journal of Ilorticiiltnro,” we are at loss to understand, as 
it is most intensely Bosionese. The Febraary issue has 
the bad taste to give the biography of our revered friend 
Col. Wilder. We hope that the day is far distant when 
any one shall have the right to make up his record, and 
we cannot conceive why he should be thus afflicted. The 
issue is all about Boston and its suburbs, and though 
Boston is our pet city, and its people arc good to know, we 
can’t see why they call it an “American” journal. The 
articles on Garden Architecture will attract attention for 
the reason that the illustrations are nearly as good as those 
in Hughes' Garden Archztechire, recently published in 
London. Wc supposed that Boston was the headquarters 
for pears, and they figure such novelties as the Bartlett, 
Seckcl and Urbanistc ! But we cannot give the space to 
an extended criticism. It is pleasant reading about hor¬ 
ticulture, and will no doubt be acceptable to the large 
class who like to have the “ road to learning ” graded and 
rolled. Its wordiness is its most objectionable featuie, 
and its diffused light, as compared with the other Horti¬ 
cultural monthlies, is as that of moonlight to sunlight. 
ncrics.—“ Young Fanner ” asks the follo-w- 
[uestions: 
Jolinstoii’s Agricultural CUemistry a 
net work from his Elements of Agricultural Chem. 
or an enlargement of the same. Amiver.-A ‘lisLnct 
t the former much the fuller and larger. The full title 
Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry and Geology. 
ibba«-e».—I have seven acres for cabbage in 1867. 
, land without manure, with a year or two ^ ^ 
irpassed for cabbage, but having 
,out rest in com, I think manure is 
I shall I use? Answer. -Ume, or a muck and Imm 
post, with super-phosphate, bone dust and ashes, 
able Manure and Fime .-I have about twenty 
s stable manure (not compost), and 
itity of air-slacked lime ; in composting shall I put 
ime! and what proportion? Answer.-^^<^ no hmc 
1 stable manure ; the lime will prove a damage. 
Imc.-How shall I apply my lime broadcast ^ 
Hint per acre, and hSoml, or hom 
^,^._Sprcad from small the 
tail of a cart ^ 50^0 bushels, 
t quantity you can ^ ^mcky character, or 
.vy lands and — m'ore than light 
k from vegetable mold, n Hi 
ich it produces on the soil in the field. 
it titrtr .c..» =i 
