268 
REVIEW OF THE JUNE NUMBER OF THE AGRICULTURIST. 
FRUIT GATHERER. 
This instrument consists of a wire skeleton, with 
a moveable ring at the top, to which is attached a 
long stocking of sufficient diameter to admit the 
fruit and allow it to roll, or slide, into the hand or 
basket of the individual using it, as indicated by 
the adjoining cut. The skeleton is attached to a 
rod of convenient length by means of a screw. 
The operation of 
the instrument is as 
follows:—Hold the 
rod and basket in the 
left hand with the 
stocking in the right. 
Direct the ring to 
which the upper end 
of the stocking is at¬ 
tached, under each 
fruit intended to be 
gathered; push the 
implement with the 
left hand, so that the 
fruit may enter the 
stocking through the 
ring ; then, by a sud¬ 
den jerk of the stock¬ 
ing, with the right 
hand, and drawing 
the pole downwards 
at about the same 
time, with the right 
hand, the fruit will 
become detached from 
the bough, and roll, 
or fall, through the 
stocking into the bas¬ 
ket, without being 
injured or bruised. 
An implement of 
this kind will be 
found particularly 
valuable for gathering fruit, which cannot easily 
be reached by the hand. They are of various 
sizes costing from $1.25 to $2.50 each. 
REVIEW OF THE JUNE NUMBER OF THE 
AGRICULTURIST. 
Points to be Considered in the Choice and Erec¬ 
tion of Lightning Rods .—It is doubted by a great 
many persons whether a lightning rod ever saved 
a building, Who knows % That nine tenths of 
them are totally inefficient, I have not the least 
doubt. 1 know that green trees planted near a 
building are good conductors. [Provided they ex¬ 
tend a certain height above the top of the house.— 
Eds.] If an iron rod is not painted, or varnished, 
it will become rusty, and according to this article, 
lose its conducting power. If all the theories of 
this writer are true, there is not one lightning rod 
in a hundred that is worth a farthing as a protector, 
and the sooner they are pulled down and applied to 
some useful purpose the better. 
Rough Notes by the Way , No. 8.—I wish every 
farmer and all his neighbors, would read Mr. Al¬ 
len’s description of how an “ ignorant city gentle¬ 
man,” as I have no doubt he was called, set out his 
fruit trees. He did not merely stick them in a 
hole in the ground and then trust to luck to make 
them grow. No; he was a c ' book farmer,” and 
studied into the science of transplanting. I have 
no doubt but he is laughed at by his neighbors for 
“ wasting his money” in reclaiming his wet lands 
by underdraining. For such is the disposition of 
the great mass of American farmers. They will 
not improve themselves nor let anybody else, if 
they can prevent them by ridicule. The world can¬ 
not present another so strange an anomaly as may 
be found among farmers—these active, keen, 
well-informed men upon general subjects, and nearly 
all of them readers ; yet, one half of them positively 
will not read any work relating to the improvement 
of the soil, but seem disposed to ridicule every one 
that pretends to practise, or even think, that there 
is a better way than that practised by their fathers 
a hundred years ago. Almost the only point upon 
which downright, obstinate stupidity can be found 
to exist among the American people, is upon the 
subject of improvement of the soil upon the princi¬ 
ples of science, as discovered and applied in the 
present age. 
Adulteration of Food, No. 12.—I again commend 
these excellent articles. But is wine properly 
ranked among articles of food % If it is, the ingre¬ 
dients of which it is usually made, are anything 
but wholesome. Yet, thousands will buy such vile 
concoctions as are here described, sooner than drink 
the pure juice of American grapes. 
On Breeding , No. l.-r-That our native breed of 
cattle might be greatly improved, is beyond doubt. 
But they never will be while the fashion prevails 
of letting them run at large through the commons 
and highways. One of the secrets of the improve¬ 
ment, both in cattle and hogs, in the New-England 
states, is greatly owing to the abolishing of this 
system—this peculiar American system of turning 
all cattle out upon the highways to herd and breed 
together, as best they may. Only persuade the 
people to have laws that every man shall fence in his 
own cattle, and they will soon begin to look about 
them to see if they cannot have a breed that will 
give more profit from a less number than they now 
get from a large herd of street runts. 
Cultivation of the Cranberry. —But if this fruit 
will grow so well upon dry land, why is this di¬ 
rection necessary for wet land, unless indeed, it be 
where land is worth more than it is in most parts 
•of the United States % It is true that many pond 
margins might be cultivated with cranberries, with 
little or no cost, and so might a thousand crooks 
and nooks, be planted with strawberries, raspber¬ 
ries, blackberries, currants, grapes, &c., See. 
Agriculiural Tour , No. 6.—The enormous 
amount of saccharine produced from Mr. McCutch- 
on’s place, without exhausting the soil, is sufficient 
proof that sugar cane will never exhaust that land, 
if it is properly cultivated ; because the whole of 
the matter taken away from the cane, or that can¬ 
not be again returned to the land, is drawn from 
the atmosphere, and not the soil. This is the most 
interesting letter of the series yet published. 
Raising Corn without Manure. —I commend this 
article of Mr. Baker’s to the serious attention of 
a great many people. My opinion is, that the way 
he raised this large crop of corn without manure, is 
the true way of planting corn. Topdress the Tim¬ 
othy and make it just as rich as you like, and then 
Fruit Gatherer.—Fig. 66. 
