VERY IMPORTANT TO FARMERS, ETC. 
15c, 
to the cleats, in order that the wires may be drawn 
straight and tight over the screws. The frame, or 
trellis, being thus fixed, a leading shoot from the 
horizontal vines, at the bottom of the frame, should 
be trained perpendicularly to the top of each strip. 
After the second year, the vines must be subject¬ 
ed to three prunings per annum. At the first, or 
winter pruning, all the side, or horizontal shoots, 
should be cut from the wires to within two joints 
of the upright shoots. The second pruning should 
be done as soon, or before, as the bug makes its 
appearance in the spring, when all the shoots 
should be cut off except two, to run along the 
wires, each in opposite directions. By this means, 
all parts of the vine will be fully exposed to the 
heat of the sun, which seems to be offensive to the 
bugs. At the third pruning, it will only be requisite 
to shorten the side shoots on the wires, leaving 
four joints beyond the outside bunches of grapes, 
which may need thinning, if a less number and a 
better quality be preferred. I. 
Westbury, Long Island, lOth mo. 25th, 1848. 
VERY IMPORTANT TO FARMERS. 
Turnips may be liberally fed to milch cows with¬ 
out imparting any unpleasant flavor to the milk or 
butter, by the following process:—Place the 
whole turnips into a steam box, with chopped hay, 
straw, or corn fodder, and steam them until they 
are soft. There should be some apertures in the 
top of the box, in order that the steam may escape 
whilst they are cooking. As soon as they are 
soft, the “ escapes” should be closed, and the 
steaming process continued until the material with 
which they are steamed is perfectly saturated with 
water and the flavor of the turnips. 
By this process, all the strong, unpleasant flavor 
of the turnip is removed, and a palatable one im¬ 
parted. In connexion with this experiment, I 
made the following invaluable one in testing the 
comparative value of cold and warm food and 
drink for milch cows :—The experiment was con¬ 
ducted thus—A herd of nine cows in a stable were 
fed with food, prepared as above, and allowed to 
cool before it was fed. The cows were turned out 
into the yard to drink cold water, where they re¬ 
mained some two or three hours, morning and eve¬ 
ning, in the cold air (the weather being very cold). 
The food was given in the stables, and the cows 
remained in all night. The milk was carefully 
measured for one week, and the amount of feed 
given, noted. The succeeding week the same 
amount of feed, prepared in the same manner, was 
given warm, the stable temperature was kept above 
freezing, find the chill taken off the water, the 
cows being constantly kept in the stables and the 
water carried to them. The result was, that there 
Was an average gain, or increase, in the amount of 
milk secreted, of about one pint per diem for each 
cow, or nine pints, at 5 cents per quart, or 2\ cents 
per day. This will leave a net profit, in favor of 
the warm stable, food, and drink, of about 13 cents 
per day of the nine cows, or about $4 per month, 
which is the usual wages paid a common laborer 
in winter, in this region. 
Besides the above advantage, the cows were 
much more comfortable, and the labor of turning 
them out into the yard and putting them up again, 
was more than that of carrying the water to them, 
as they required but little, being fed with moist 
steamed food, about one third of which was tur¬ 
nips. 
I have also fed my swine with warm swill dur¬ 
ing the past winter, in which I have found a de¬ 
cided advantage. John Wilkinson. 
Mount-Airy Agricultural Institute , 
Germantown, Pa., March, 1849. 
FATTENING- POULTRY—EXPLANATION. 
In the March number of the Agriculturist, I see 
your charming correspondent E. S. gives me seve¬ 
ral rather severe hits on the account of my experi¬ 
ment in fattening poultry, as detailed in the January 
number, to which you appended some judicious 
remarks, on the qualities of birds, beasts, &c. 
With your permission, I will offer a little explana¬ 
tion on several points. 
In the first place, I did not say that the method 
made use of by me was the best. I said, “ by 
some such way” poultry might be sold for more 
money, thereby increasing the farmer’s gains. 
Secondly, the cheapness, which E. S. says is so 
doubtful, may not be so when I tell her that the 
rice I used, was not clean, but was bought at 3| 
cents per pound. Again, I am told by one experi¬ 
enced in such matters, that I kept my poultry con¬ 
fined too long; as they probably were in better 
condition on the ninth and tenth day than when 
killed. 
Thirdly, they were kept perfectly clean ; the 
box, in which they were confined, having no bot¬ 
tom, was moved a little out of place every day. 
Fourthly, under the head of cruelty to animals, 
I must “plead guilty;” still, when we consider 
that it was night to them a great part of the time, 
when poultry of all kinds crowd into the smallest 
possible compass, this will be no great objection. 
Let that be as it may, I know they were perfectly 
quiet all the time. 
I was induced to try rice, from the fact that the 
rice buntings, of the south, get so excessively fat 
from feeding on this grain when “ in the milk ;” and 
my object was to endeavor to make a dish that 
would approach nature as near possible. 
J. B. D. 
Boston , March 7th, 1849. 
Fruit at the South. — “I have just plant¬ 
ed out an orchard of 500 choice apple and 
peach trees, and filled the yard round my house 
with plums and apricots, the first work I have 
ever done in this line.” 
Thus writes a friend under date of 26th Febru¬ 
ary last, from the centre of South Carolina, and very 
glad are we to hear it; for we have always 
contended that a finer peach, apricot, and grape 
country does not exist than is to be found in the 
southern states. Certain kinds of apples, cherries, 
and plums do well there. The smaller fruits, such 
as strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and cur¬ 
rants also grow very finely. Gooseberries do not 
flourish so well, except in the mountainous re¬ 
gions. We would be obliged if any of our south 
ern friends would inform us whether the whortle¬ 
berry, (vaccinium,) is found at the south except 
among the mountains. 
