REVIEW OF THE TUNE NUMBER OF THE AGRICULTURIST. 
307 
REVIEW OF THE JUNE NUMBER OF THE 
AGRICULTURIST. 
To Prevent, the Ravages of the Turnip Fly. —If 
a system of culture can be adopted to cure this evil, 
it will be better than any doctoring of the seed or 
young plants. To this end, I recommend a top¬ 
dressing of ashes upon a grass sod, this year, very 
heavy, and for a crop next year, break up, and, if 
possible, yard sheep and cattle upon the ground for 
several weeks ; during which, apply several dress¬ 
ings of lime, and then harrow without a second 
plowing, and sow the seed mixed with radish, as 
recommended, and I doubt if you have flies enough 
to eat up the radishes, and you will have a great 
crop of turnips. 
Notes on Long Island , No. 3, Centre Island .— 
I am not aware what the original fertility of Mr. 
Smith’s farm might have been, but certainly some 
25 years ago, the crops upon no part of this island 
were equal to what you state them now to 
be. Your article would therefore be more interest¬ 
ing, if it had stated more minutely the process 
of Mr.' Smith in bringing his land up to its pre¬ 
sent state of fertility, by which he obtains such 
bountiful crops. For there is abundance of land 
upon Long Island as capable of renovation as Cen¬ 
tre Island ) and if it can be done without too great 
an expense, it would prove a great blessing to a 
great number if they could be told how, and in¬ 
duced to do it. 
We want a few more such men as Mr. M‘Coun, 
to leave the city, and help renovate the worn-out 
lands of this lovely island. 
Protection of Buildings from Lightning. — Read¬ 
er, turn right back to page 171 and read this ex¬ 
cellent article. Study it thoroughly. It is a well- 
written article upon a very important subject. In 
regard to capacity of a rod, I do not think that a 
half-inch copper rod is at all requisite for an ordi¬ 
nary farm house or barn. [When properly con¬ 
structed, and well put up, experience has proved 
this capacity to be abundantly large]. As it pos¬ 
sesses the capacity of at least five iron rods of the 
same size, and as it is well known that an iron rod 
of five eighths, or three fourths, of an inch diame¬ 
ter is sufficient, I would venture to recommend a 
smaller copper rod, say three eighths, or even one j 
fourth of an inch, when very short; or, what would 
be still better one copper rod of one half, or 
three fourths of an inch in diameter. The ends of 
the rods should never he linked together , but joined 
with a screw, one into the end of the other, or else, 
by a female screw as a boss over the ends of the 
adjoining rods. I fully agree with the editor, that 
iron rods, coated with metal, say tin or copper, 
would be better than paint, but I don’t believe that 
a three-fourth inch iron rod, painted, would fail to 
be a good conductor 40 or 50 feet. [A rusty iron 
rod, or one covered withordin try paint, is no better 
than one made of wood]. As to fastening the rod 
to the house with iron staples without isolators, I 
cannot recommend without more light upon my own 
mind. [The electric fluid is not much inclined to 
leave a clean copper rod, and run off at right angles 
on a rusty iron staple or wire] . But I can recom¬ 
mend trees, planted near buildings, as good conduc¬ 
tors, and very cheap ones too. 
Butter Making. —Never was a more sensible, 
plain, common-sense article written upon till b- 
ject, than the one to be found at page 173 is 
volume. Butter, thus made and packed, w p 
forever. I’ve tried it. 
Cast-Iron Garden Chairs. — I notice ■' ' - article 
only to suggest and recommend the “ thug up” 
of iron chairs for household rre. They could be 
made of tubes, so as not to be \ ery heavy, nor very 
expensive, and yet exceeding! durable, and when 
broken, the material would still be worth, at least, 
as much as “ old iron.” In fact, I think garden 
chairs would be thus made cheaper and better than 
of cast iron. There would be one great advantage of 
iron chairs in hotels, steamers, and other public 
places • they would utterly set at defiance Yankee 
bargain makers, and Georgia tooth picks—in other 
words, they could not be “whittled.” 
Garden Implements. —Small specimens of a great 
many curiosities to be seen in the great “ Agricul¬ 
tural Museum of New York City.” Admittance 
Free! 
The Cow—Her Diseases and Management , No. 
2.—Read carefully the extract from Barlow’s poem, 
and practice upon it, and you will rarely have occa¬ 
sion for the recipes for physic doses. But if you 
do, I have no doubt but they will be found to be 
valuable and well worthy of preservation, as they 
may be needed for future use. 
Farmers in the Ascendant. —I wish this caption 
was more true. But notwithstanding that our legis¬ 
lature was composed of three times as many farmers 
as lawyers, such is the power of superior education, 
that the minority are, were, and will continue to be, 
in the ascendant, in spite of numbers, until the edu¬ 
cation of farmers shall be so improved as to enable 
them to ascend to the very pinacle of the law¬ 
making power of our country. 
Artificial Swarming of Bees. —Mr. Townley has 
given a very interesting article upon this subject. 
I will add one item to it. The past spring, I had a 
strong swarm in one of Weeks’ hives, and I in¬ 
serted one of the largest-sized drawers in the cham¬ 
ber when the bees first began to work, in which 
were several pieces of dry comb, to serve as guides. 
The body of the hive being full of old comb, the 
bees went directly to work in the drawer, and the 
latter part of May, I found the drawer full of bees, 
and withdrew it and inserted it in an empty hive at 
the time many bees were abroad. Then I moved 
the old hive, and put the new one in its place. The 
result was, that I had the satisfaction of seeing the 
workers return and enter, and the new colony go 
on at once, without, loss of time, to make the best 
of their new home. 
Construction of Farm Cottages. —It has been 
quaintly remarked that the degrees of civilization 
of any community were marked by the quantity of 
soap used. But it is much more strongly marked 
by the appearance of their habitations. And there 
is no subject with which a few pages of the Agri¬ 
culturist can be filled every month, that is of more 
importance than such articles as the one now under 
notice, wherein various plans of buildings, suitable 
for the farmer, or country resident, might be illus¬ 
trated. For a farm house, whatever may be the 
fashion, or appearance of the exterior, size, or num- 
