180 
REVIEW OF THE FEBRUARY NUMBER OF THE AGRICULTURIST 
classes, and this was admitted by all who saw 
them. 
Fat and size are too much looked at in decisions 
in England, as they please the eye; 
I give you this detail, and send you five news¬ 
papers with accounts of the Yorkshire show, that 
you may show' them at your great state show at 
Saratoga, and may send them to your newspapers 
and to Canada. I think you may state the near 
relationship of yours to these of mine. I do not 
doubt you will be successful with Hilpa at 
Saratoga. [Mr. Vail was so, and won the first 
prize. Ed.] 
REVIEW OF FEBRUARY NO. OF THE AGRI¬ 
CULTURIST. 
Cultivation of the Sweet Potato. —In my late 
visit to the state of Maine, I was surprised to learn 
ttiat this delicious vegetable had been grown in 
tolerable perfection so far north. But the great 
difficulty arises from the trouble of keeping the 
seed through the winter. Not one cellar in a hun¬ 
dred will answer; and the directions given by the 
editor, are not quite sufficient for that purpose. 
Besides having the tubers dry, and packed in dry 
sand, great care should be observed to select the 
roots all of about an equal, or medium size, perfect¬ 
ly sound, and the sand not only dry, but clean, and 
not from the sea beach ; because that is more likely 
to absorb moisture. The best way to pack them, is 
in barrels, having a good many auger holes bored 
through the staves, into which wisps of straw 
must be stuffed to prevent the sand from running 
out. Every potato must be put in separate, and 
completely surrounded with sand ; and if you have 
an upper room where you can keep the barrels 
without freezing, you will always have sweet pota¬ 
to seed. These directions are for the north; at! 
the south, they would laugh at such a thing. 
Apple Orchards , No. 6.—Indefiniteness in direc¬ 
tions for the cure of any malady, or performing any 
work, l am always at war with. In directions to 
cure the blight, we are told to get a “whitewash 
brush, then get a large pot of double size.” What 
fori Why won’t a big’kettle answer I N<5t one 
reader in ten will ever think the large pot is to hold 
anything but whitewash. [What can be more de¬ 
finite I A large pot of “double size;” that is, a 
pot, or kettle , if you please, filled with “ soft glued’ 
obtained from the skins of animals, but evaporated 
less than common glue, in order that it may be kept 
in a semi-fluid state.] 
Cultivation of the Osier. —The article upon this 
subject is one of great value, particularly to the 
south, where the cultivation of osiers is more need¬ 
ed than in any other part of the world that 1 know 
of. Upon every cotton plantation, the use of 
baskets, in great numbers, is indispensable; and the 
annual wear of them is so great, that it is very diffi¬ 
cult to obtain timber in many places to supply the 
want. Therefore, I would press upon the notice of 
planters, the immediate cultivation of the osier wil¬ 
low. The variety of uses to which osiers can be 
applied, do not begin to be enumerated in the article 
under review. 
Live^avple Tree Posts , as suggested by the Mas¬ 
sachusetts Ploughman, for permanent fence, is well 
worthy of serious consideration. I think the hint 
a valuable one. Let it be discussed. 
Hydraulics for Farmers. —Is it possible that any 
sane man has read what has been published for a 
year or two past, without taking steps to provide 
himself with a machine to bring the water up the 
hill, or save the wear and tear of cattle and con¬ 
science, from going down after it, when situated 
just like the farmer spoken of by Mr. Bacon I 
Yes; hundreds. I know one man who is worth 
thousands of dollars, and who is what is called of 
sane mind, whose family bring every drop of water, 
forty rods up the hill, where, without the least 
trouble, a water ram could be set to work ; and yet 
he takes no steps to provide one. Is such a man 
truly sane I 
Consumption of Wood in the United States. —If 
there are upwards of 10,000,000 cords of wood con¬ 
sumed as fuel, every year, besides the enormous de¬ 
struction of forests that is constantly going on, to pre¬ 
pare newland for cultivation, the time is indeed short, 
when this country will be one almost destitute of tim¬ 
ber. I have heard the argument used, that railroads 
would equalize the supply, by bringing timber from 
plentiful regions, to places where it is most needed. 
This will be so for a short time ; but railroads will 
constantly tend to make the evil greater, not only 
by inducing owners to clear up all the land along 
the lines, but when these roads once reach the wide¬ 
spread prairies of the west, the demand for timber 
will be more extensive at that end, than it will be 
at the eastern end of the roads. The only remedy 
for so great a calamity as a scarcity of timber among 
a people so accustomed to the extravagant use of it, 
as this Yankee nation, is an immediate, energetic 
commencement of a systematic planting and culture 
of trees for timber. Every agricultural society and 
paper should take the matter in hand. Many of 
the once-wooded districts of Massachusetts, Rhode 
Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Penn¬ 
sylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, are al¬ 
ready suffering a destitution of timber; and few or 
no plantations are making to supply the dearth. 
The subject is very important. And so is the 
Season for Cutting Timber. —So far as regards 
the right time for cutting all kinds of timber liable 
to powder post, I shall give my vote in favor of 
mid-summer. 
Swine, No. 2.—You need not have gone to the 
Zoological Gardens of London, for a portrait of the 
wild boar, figured in this number. Indeed, I think 
I can discover almost a perfect likeness of the 
picture, in the lot of one of my neighbors, not a 
thousand miles from the City Hall of New York. 
And he insists upon it that the breed is just as good 
as any. 
Education of Farmers. —I notice this article, not 
because 1 suppose that I can induce farmers to 
adopt a better; that is, an agricultural education for 
their children; for the fact is, their education is 
good enough now; if it were better, or what the 
editor of the Agriculturist would contend it ought 
to be, in twenty years’ time, we, professional men, 
would be turned out of the Legislature and Con¬ 
gress, and our places all filled with farmers; and 
then what would this country come to, I should 
like to know I 
Upon the subject of the grant of lands to the 
