Agriculture 
mer hauls the bodies of the trees in some conven¬ 
ient. place, and they saw for ten dollars per day. 
They usually saw from thirty to forty cords per day. 
The wheat threshed In this vicinity, so far, averages 
about ten bushelB to the acre.” 
past, and ask the question, 1 Will we be caught in 
the same trap this year, even should the crop prove 
to be a light one ?’ We hope not. The stock of 
hops on hand and unsold, including the Bavarian, 
is probably ”0,000 bales; and we will suppose the 
brewers hold 15,000 bales, which will foot up 05,000 
bales, or one-third of all that will be required for 
the coming year; and with a present prospect of 
growing double the ^amount of last year, we ask 
again, will our growers hold for a high price, or 
will they fix the price so low that dealers can ship 
our surplus out of the country, thereby turning the 
tables upon our foreigB friends by placing our bops 
in their market to compete with their own growth ? 
We place these facts squarely before the hop-grow¬ 
ers of the United States, and ask a careful consider¬ 
ation of them.” 
tains all the qualities requisite for our various crops. 
But when we reBart to special fertilizers we must 
first inquire what the crop needs that we propose to 
raise. And for this purpose we should look, prima¬ 
rily, to the mineral constituents of the grain and 
straw. The organic constituents are mainly sup¬ 
plied from the atmosphere. Professors Way and 
Ogden made numeroua analyses of the ash of the 
grain and straw of wheat, and found that a crop of 
thirty-live bushels of grain and 4,1100 lbs. of straw 
took from the soil the following proportions of 
mineral constituents : 
Grain. Straw. Total, 
lbs. lbs. lbs. 
Silica (soluble sand). 1.18 142.55 143.73 
Potash.10.50 25.50 36.00 
Phosphoric acid. 16.00 11.55 27.55 
Time. 1.19 13.00 14.19 
Magnesia. 4.25 5.70 0.95 
Sulphuric acid .. .. 0.112 8.10 8.212 
Soda. 1,35 1.20 2.61 
Common salt.. 0.042 0.46 0.502 
Perosyd of iron and loss. 0.28 1.85 2.13 
34.904 209.97 244.874 
It will be noted that the quantity of mineral mat¬ 
ter is small, only 144 poundB from 6,300 pounds of 
straw and grain. The principal ingredients taken 
from the soil by the grain are potash, phosphoric 
acid, magnesia, soda and lime, the two latter in very 
small quantity. And in-the straw we see that Bilica 
is the main ingredient, anil then potash, lime, phos¬ 
phoric acid, sulphuric acid and magnesia. The silica 
iB generally readily supplied from the soil. Thus we 
see that our principal effort, where the aoil fails to 
raise remunerative crops, should be to supply pot¬ 
ash, phosphoric acid, magnesia and lime. The ash 
of the grain contains about 47 per cent, of phos¬ 
phoric acid, and thirty per cent of potash. 
BONES. 
Raw bones will supply the phosphoric acid, lime 
and magnesia, besjdes ammonia and carbon. Liebig 
estimates 20 lbs. of bones as Sufficient to supply the 
phosphates for 1,000 lbs. of wheat and eight IPb. of 
bones as sufficient, for 1,000 lbs. of straw. He esti¬ 
mates 60 lbs. of fivsh bones as sufficient to supply 
an acre with phosphates for three crops (mangel 
wurzel, wheat and rye.) This doeB not differ mate¬ 
rially from the foregoing analysis. It will therefore 
he seen that it does not require a large amount to 
supply the principal mineral constituents of wheat. 
But it must be borne in mind that this estimate is 
for bones in a soluble state, or in a condition to be 
taken up by the roots of plants. It will require 
many times this amount of coarse ground bones, 
which slowly dissolve by the action of water, frost 
and air. The most economical method of using 
bones is to dissolve them in sulphuric acid when 
this is not too dear. Snlphnric acid during the war 
was too expensive to he used in agriculture, but is 
now reduced in price to 3>£ cents per pound. At 
this figure it may be used with profit. The method 
of dissolving bone6 is very simple. But the finer 
the bones are ground the less acid it takes. In pre¬ 
paring bones for sugar refining, they are ground 
about the size of a rice kernel and sifted to take out 
all the fine dust. This tine black is sold to be made 
into manure by dissolving in acid. There is also a 
large quantity of refuse bene black at sugar refiner¬ 
ies to be had for this purpose. Any farmer may pre¬ 
pare bones with acid, for his own use, with the 
pleasant satisfaction that, he has a pure super-phos¬ 
phate, not adulterated with refuse lime, plaster and 
dirt. In our next we will give the mode of dissolv¬ 
ing bones—the composition of a special manure for 
wheat, other grain or grass, and the composition 
and action of ashes, leached and unleached, gypsum, 
Ac.— e. w. 3. 
use the straw itself to fasten the bundles on. This 
is done by taking a few straws from the side of each 
bundle after it is laid on the cross strips, and pass 
them over the next one laid and under the strip, and 
over again, then adding more straw from the bundle 
just tied. In this way a continuous rope is made 
until the end of the course is reached. The courses 
should overlap so as to make the roof the thickness 
of three bundles, or about eighteen inches, and if 
the piteh is one-third, the material good and well 
laid, I will warrant no water to go through, and that 
it will be a warm, serviceable roof for twenty years.” 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW YORKER, 
AN ORIGIN AX WEEKLY 
Agricultural, Literary and Family Newspaper, 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
(PUBLISHER AND PROPRIETOR,) 
With a Corps of Able Associates and Contributors 
e. F. WILCOX AND A. A. HOPKINS, Associate Editors. 
Hon. HENRY S. RANDALL, LL. D., 
Editor of tlie Department of Sheep Husbandry. 
Dr. DANIEL LEE. Southern Corresponding Editor. 
Time for Sowing Wheat. 
During a recent meeting of the Douglas Co. 
Agricultural Society, Kansas, the subject of wheat 
raising was pretty thoroughly discussed. The prop¬ 
er time for sowing was one of the points consid¬ 
ered. September found the most friends. One 
member asked why earlier sowing was not prefera¬ 
ble, to which another replied by saying that he 
sowed sixty acres one year, completing the work 
the last day of August. It grew so as to joint be¬ 
fore the setting in of winter, and the whole crop 
was lost in consequence. Feeding down might 
have saved it, he thought, but the stock for doing 
it was wanting. Another member Baid the best 
wheat he ever raised in Kansas was sown the first 
week in September on oat stubble ground. The 
wheat and oats came np together, and the latter 
acted as a mulch to the former. The product was 
thirty-five bushels to the acre. A member stated 
that he had seen in England seventy-five bushels of 
wheat from au acre where the seed was dibbled in, 
and another seventy-two bushels where hoed in. 
Terms, In Advance — Three Dollars a Year:— Five 
copies for $14; Seven, and one free to Cl nil Agent, for $19; 
Ten. and one free, for $27 — only $2.50 per copy. As we pre¬ 
pay American postace, $2.70 is the lowest Club rate to Canada 
and $3,50 to Europe. The best way to remit is by Draft ot 
Post-Office Money Order,—and all Drafts and Orders made 
payable to the Publisher stay jus mailed at his risk. 
J. J. Mjschi wrote to the Mark Lane Express, in 
April last, concerning his experiments in sowing 
wheat. He sowed a portion of land in November, 
at the rate of a peck to the acre, and it looked like 
a fallow all winter. After being hoed, in the spring, 
it branched out abundantly, and promised a yield 
fully equal to that where a bushel to the acre was 
sown. He adds " Every year I sow half an acre 
with half a peck of wheat, in the midst of a thicker 
sown crop, putting it in the same day and under 
the same circumstances in the various fields, as 
they come in rotation. By this means I arrive at 
safe conclusions, and would strongly recommend 
my agricultural friends to follow my example, by 
thus experimenting on a small and uninjuriouB 
scale. It would abolish many prejudices, and they 
are bound for their own interests to ascertain the 
most profitable quantity of seed. My four years’ 
trials have resulted in 58, 57, 36, 36 bushels of wheat 
per acre, the first two good wheat years, the two 
latter unfavorable. 1 still continue to drill 4 pecks 
of wheat, 6 pecks of barley, 8 pecks of oats, as my 
general sowing — a trifle more on the light laud; 
but I am getting more and more convinced that, 
with high, clean farming, and the drill, we may, in 
Essex, reduce our wheat to 2 pecks.” 
Durable Stack Bottom*. 
A. P. Donnelly, Dodge Co., Wis., writes:—" Will 
you give me the plan of a durable stack bottom, one 
that will save the grain or hay from h urting, and keep 
rat6 or other vermin from the stack V ” 
We reply by giving an engraving taken from the 
advertising columns of a foreign Agricultural jour¬ 
nal. In the British Islands stack bottoms are man¬ 
ufactured largely and enter into trade to quite an 
extent, but we are not aware that any are made and 
sold in this country. The kind we illustrate 1 b made 
of cast iron, and the ent explains its construction. 
Durability and strength considered, thiB is probably 
the cheapest material, though they might he formed 
of timber, or atone pillars could be substituted for 
iron or wooden ones. 
"If yon can tell me,” writes an " Anxious Far¬ 
mer,” from Wisconsin, “ how to kill (exterminate) 
that patch of Canada thistles, an acre or thereabout 
in extent, which I can see now through the window 
down on the rich bottom, I will be a constant 
friend (subscriber) through all the years that I am 
permitted to see grass again where the thistles now 
hold possession. Your Eastern farmers have but a 
faint idea of the tenacity and vigor which weeds 
possess when growing in our rich bottom or prairie 
soil. Talk of mowing them ! Why, sir, the woody, 
tree-like stalks of that dense patch of thistles would 
turn aside the sharpest scythes and clog any mower, 
and as for cutting them enough or plowing to ex¬ 
terminate them, I think they will grow in the night 
as fast as you can cut down in the day. Once an 
emigrant trail led across the bottom, and the shade 
of a small cluster of trees made the spot a favorite 
camping ground, and 1 suppose the seed was 
brought by the emigrant trains.” 
That patch of thistles, or couch grass, or other 
pestiferous weeds which as yet has only made its 
presence known, and but little of its real power for 
harm, Is what our Western farmers should look to 
sharply. On the rich soil of the West weeds, in 
the future, will possess a power for evil ten fold 
stronger than in more sterile landB. But Western 
communities realize the facts, and public effort is 
not lacking to keep the land free from the costly 
intruders. 
The time for sowing winter wheat approaches, 
and the farmer needs to draw on every resource to 
supply his fertilizers for a maximum crop of this 
staff of life. The first and grand supply of every 
farm should be that from our domestic animals, well 
composted, when practicable, with muck or mellow 
earth, To render this mo6t effective and utiiize all 
its ammonia, the fresh manure should oe mixed 
with earth under cover, provided with a cistern 
near, from which water may be pumped upon the 
heap to saturate all its contents and make it uni¬ 
form in quality. 
The manure pile should be slightly elevated, with 
a channel running from it to the cistern, so that the 
surplus water will run to the reservoir to be re¬ 
pumped upon the heap. This cistern may be so 
situated that the urine from the stable will run into 
it if not effectually absorbed by the litter used for 
the animals. Two loads of muck or earth mixed 
with one of manure, after this manner, the urine 
being all saved, will be as valuable as three loads of 
manure with the usual care,—thus the manure pile 
is multiplied by three, and farmers will find the 
study of this rule of three to pay. 
When farmers have no rude arrangement for sav¬ 
ing and utilizing all their manure, to prevent the 
escape of ammonia from their heaps, we would 
recommend applying a thin coating of plaster over 
their manure piles every few days. The sulphur of 
the plaster will unite with the ammonia, forming 
sulphate of ammonia, which is not volatile. This 
will save much of the value of the manure, besides 
adding the qualities of plaster. A few barrels of 
gypsum may be used by the farmer every year, in 
this way, with great profit. The volatile parts of 
the manure may be saved by dusting the stable 
every day with gypsum. This will absorb all the 
bad odor and render the stable more wholesome for 
man and animals, especially in warm weather. The 
salt and lime mixture, made by Blaking lime with 
very Btrong brine, is also excellent to preserve the 
volatile parts of manure. It is a good disinfectant 
to be used about the stables, and when mixed with 
barn-yard manure will preserve the ammonia when 
used as top dressing for crops. 
TOP DRES9ING. 
When barn-yard manure is used for winter wheat 
upon clay soil, it should be as a top dressing, that it 
may operate as a mulch and prevent winter killing, 
as well as fertilizing the crop. If nothing has been 
mixed with tbe manure to absorb its volatile gases, 
it should still be used as a top dressing upon a 
heavy soil, and simply harrowed Or cultivated In ; 
as clay has a strong affinity for ammonia and will 
absorb a heavy dressing in ten inches of soil. But 
it is quite different with a light, sandy soil, and on 
this manure should not be used as a top dressing 
unless mixed with some good absorbent of its gases. 
1/ it has been mixed with muck, or plaster, or salt 
and lime, as recommended, no loss will occur from 
top dressing even a light soiL But lime alone 
should never be mixed with barn-yard manure, as it 
will dissipate the ammonia and greatly lessen its 
value. 
MINERAL RESOURCES. 
After the farmer has saved and applied all his 
barn-yard manure and still finds himself short in 
covering his fields, he must resort to other manures 
to supply the deficiency. Barn-yard manure con¬ 
How shall scattering patches of weeds, 
such as tbe one our correspondent describes, be eradi 
catedV We know of but two methods which 
promise success, and, on second thought, both are 
practically alike. The one is to cut the weeds or 
plow the land so often as to prevent all top-growth; 
this, in time, will certainly kill the plants subjected 
to such treatment. To facilitate the work the first 
plowing should be deep, using the Michigan double 
plow, in order to bury the top soil as far as possi¬ 
ble. The second method is to smother the weeds 
by mulching the patch heavily enough to prevent 
all growth, and this, in a country where straw and 
coarse grass or hay is plenty, is not a difficult labor. 
In many localities the application of gas lime would 
be feasible, and it would certainly destroy all veget¬ 
able growth for two or three yeare — long enough 
to kill any weeds —if applied in sufficient quanti¬ 
ties. We have no doubt that this material 1 a des¬ 
tined to render important services to farmers, as a 
weed destroyer, when its value becomes more gener¬ 
ally understood. Experiments have recently been 
made in England with gas lime, to test its qualities 
and value for agricultural purposes, and the follow¬ 
ing facts and suggestions are offered; 
1. A dressing of from three to four tons of gas 
lime to the acre, if applied in the winter or before 
the spring rains, proves a powerful stimulant to 
grass, Increasing the crop of hay for that season and 
the next; and it imparts great vigor to the grass on 
old pastures, and the cattle show uo signs of dislike 
on account of the gas lime. 
2. If gas lime be applied at the rate of eight tons 
per acre, it will destroy all vegetation for three years. 
3. A piece of ground thoroughly infested with 
weeds that are hard to be extirpated, may, in cer¬ 
tain cases, where the cost of hauling is not too great, 
be more economically cleansed by a heavy coating 
of gas lime than by any other method. 
This substance seems to answer an excellent pur¬ 
pose in preventing the growth of grass and weeds, 
which are go liable to infest carriage drives and 
walks. 
A Post Driver. 
The editor of the Journal of Agriculture describes 
and illustrates in " Notes of Travel ” on the prairies, 
a post driver We transfer the matter to our col¬ 
umns believing It will be of use to many readers. 
This machine is of quite simple construction, and 
with the exception of a little iron work—the pulleys 
and rope—may be made by any farmer who Ib handy 
with tools. The pair of runners (1) are 9 feet long, 
made of oak, 7 inches wide and 4 inches thick. The 
cross pieces (3) arc of 4 by 4-inch scantling. The 
distance from the rear cross piece to the next one is 
10 inches, and from that to the front one is feet. 
The rearone is left open in the middle, as represented, 
for the post. Two pieces of 3 by 4-inch scantling are 
bolted across the top of the cross pieces near the 
middle, as seen in the cut. The two upright pieces 
(4) are 30 feet long, 3 by 6-inch scantling, stiffened 
by a 2 by 4-inch piece spiked on the outsides, edge¬ 
wise. i^They would be better made of 4 by 6-inch 
stuff, or even 6-inch square, as they are required to 
be still'. The braces (5) are 2 by 4-lnch, the front 
ones a foot the longest. The weight, or block (6) 
may he round or square, 80 inches in diameter, and 
8 feet or V-/1 loDg, of solid, heavy oak, and grooved 
on the sides next to the uprights. In the top of this 
is a strong staple, to which the shear?, which are 
fastened in the sliding block above, catch. The 
grooves in the weight are 6 inches wide, to take in 
the whole width of the uprights. (Four pins on 
each side would answer the purpose of the grooves.) 
Two 3-inch auger holes are bored through the 
rear portion of each runner, in order to drive in 
stakes or a crowbar to keep the machine from being 
drawn forward while driving the post The work¬ 
ing will be readily understood. A chain Is fastened 
to the front cross piece at the points where the top 
pieces are joined, to which the whiffietrees are 
hooked. It is then drawn forward by the team (a 
span of horses or mules) until the weight is over the 
mark for the post. The post being placed, the 
whiffietrees are then unhooked from the chain and 
hooked to the rope which pulls np the weight. One 
to three blows will drive the post in to the required 
depth. It is then drawn forward to the next post. 
Tbi'eshitiK with Steam Eualnes. 
We published an illustrated article last week on the 
above subject, but as we are in receipt of several in¬ 
quiries, indicating that the attention of farmers is 
widely directed towards it at this time, we give in 
addition the following interesting letter from 0. C. 
M., Harrisburg, Fayette Co., Lnd. He writes :—"I 
have several times seen inquiries in your paper in 
regard to ‘Steam Threshing Machines.’ I infer from 
the inquiries made, that the steam thresher is not 
so generally used as I supposed it was. In this 
vicinity they have been in use about eight years; 
they are preferred here to any other machine, on ac¬ 
count of doing away with so many horses; and in 
having more and steadier power than can be had by 
horseB. The expense of running the machine iB no 
more than that of horse power. They usually con¬ 
sume about one cord and a half of wood iu a day. 
They carry with them a circular saw, and saw the 
wood, if the man wants to do so. They generally 
use old rails for fuel. The engine is moved about 
the country with two pair of cattle; its weight is 
from forty-five to fifty hundred pounds. They can 
thresh, in good wheat, from live to six hundred 
bushels per day, but in light wheat the average Is 
generally from three to five hundred per day. -\b 
regards the danger from fire, I would say that in the 
eight years they have been In use in this vicinity, I 
have heard of only three accidents by fire, and one of 
them wsb the result of carelessness, by leaving the 
screen off' the top of the smoke-stack. They were 
all stacks of wheat,—have never heard of their 
burning a barn. 
Tbe cost of the engine and separator, at the shop, 
is about fifteen or sixteen hundred dollars. The 
best machines we have in this country are made at 
Richmond, Indiana. There is also another very 
good machine made at Hamilton, Butler Uo., Ohio. 
Those who have engines for threshing, generally use 
them in the winter season in sawing wood, the far- 
“Kye straw threshed with a flail, and kept straight, 
with the short or broken straw raked out, is the best 
material 1 have used ; but good wheat or even oat 
straw will make a safe roof. I suppose timothy, or 
any tall, straight grass, might be used to good pur¬ 
pose, Though 1 have tried nothing but straw. The 
roof is made ready for thatching by nailing strips of 
board, say one by two inches, across the rafters, 
putting them a foot apart. The pitch should be 
steep, say a Third piteh, in builders’ terms, to ensure 
a water-proof and durable roof. The straw should 
he cut to a uniform length and care taken to have it 
straight and all right. The sketch shows how the 
roof is prepared for the straw aiad the manner the 
courses are laid. For convenience in handling I 
prefer tying the straw in bundles that will average 
about six inches in thickness. The band should be 
quite close to the upper end, the one which is fas¬ 
tened to the cross strip. There are different ways of 
fastening; some use twine, passing it round the 
baud end of tbe bundle and under the pole, then 
around another bundle and so on, but 1 prefer to 
WHY HOPS ARE LOW 
The sudden and very large decline in the price of 
hops, during the last few months, has been a sub¬ 
ject of surprise to many, for the reason that no evi¬ 
dence of over-production last year has been afforded. 
Smith, Wimple it Co., after showing that the sur¬ 
plus hops in market last fall aggregated much less 
than for the previous year, add —"The mistake 
then, was not so much of a mistake after all, taking 
only the American growth into consideration; hut 
the miscalculation was in the foreign crops, and the 
fatal mistake made by most or very many of our 
hop-growers, dealers and brewers (not excepting S. 
W. & Co.,) was the starting and holding our own 
growth so high that we invited a foreign article, 
much better than a large portion of our own, to 
supplant and take the place the native commodity 
should occupy. We now see the enor made in the 
m2 || 
8 *^ 
P- 
