mtmw s 
nbastrial topics 
my ice was all gone. I wrote to the editor 
of my agricultural paper for advice. Was 
told it needed ventilation. Put in the top a 
tube a foot scpiare and tried it another year. 
It kept till August. The next winter I was 
visiting in Shelby County, Ohio, on the Mi¬ 
ami Canal, where large quantities of ice are 
Learned 
SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 
sold for the Cincinnati market 
how they did it, and when I got home built 
me an ice-house as follows: 
Made a bin in the open air fourteen by 
sixteen feet, of hemlock boards, with four- 
inch scantling for po3ts, and roofed it over, 
leaving the gable ends and three feet on the 
front side open. Filled in with six inches of 
coarse chips for drainage; on these ten inches 
of sawdust. Packed my ice in the center, 
and covered top and sides with eighteen 
inches of sawdust. My ice kept perfectly. 
From that day to this have had plenty of 
ice. No longer consider it a luxury but a 
necessity in housekeeping. To those who 
agree with me that it is a nice thing to have 
plenty of ice to use dnring the heated term, 
in the dairy, to keep fresh meats, and also in 
case of sickness, I would say, during the 
leisure of the present winter, go and do like¬ 
wise. St. Lawrence, 
The gate from which the above drawing was taken was made and hung twenty-five years 
ago, and although it has been used daily during that period, it is still a substantial gate, and 
promises to last several years Unger. It is made of heart pine, well seasoned, and nicely 
fitted together. Its dimensions can all be correctly ascertained by reference to the scale 
annexed.—It. II. M., Edgefield C. H ., 8. C. 
tern of agriculture which wastes the soil, 
keeps land values low, admits of few farm or 
neighborhood improvements, and makes a 
new country look like an agricultural ruin ? 
— that yields but per acre yearly, re¬ 
quires the purchase of flour and butter and 
demands a greater expenditure for generous 
living than the single money crop will pur¬ 
chase? Evidently, it wants reorganizing. 
IIow such a result may be accomplished will 
be considered hereafter. 
Washington, Dec., 18G8. 
KILLING TIMBER, 
arm (I'roitomn 
There is nothing connected with farming, 
in a new’ and wooded country, w liioh makes 
so munificent a return for money expended, 
as deadening timber on land several years 
in advance of clearing it. Of course, on 
moving upon timbered land, the first thing 
in order is to provide a dwelling lor the 
family and shelter for the stock, with a suffi- 
cieut opening around each to prevent trees 
from falling upon them should the wind 
chance to throw down any in the vicinity. 
These preliminaries attended to, select such 
ground as is to he cleared immediately or 
within a few years, and, adjoining this 
SELF-SHUTTING DOORS, 
The annoyance and inconvenience of hav¬ 
ing a door slamming about by the action of 
the wind, or the necessity of being detained 
every time you pass a door, a sufficient length 
of time to properly close it, is not very agree- 
ble, to say the least. It matters not, the haste 
you are in, the same operation has to be per¬ 
formed ; or if the hook, catch, hasp or other 
fastening is out of repair, you are obliged to 
place a billet against the. door or secure it 
with siring or wire; or, if it remains un¬ 
closed, it is liable to be torn from its binges 
by the wind, and a score or more of fowls, 
calves and swine make sad havoc with the 
seed grain you have carefully placed in a 
barrel or box. 
LIME, POTASH, CLAY. 
BY DANIEL LEE. 
com¬ 
mence girdling and tontinucon till so much 
as is needed is deadened by girdling each 
tree. Those suitably for sawing, timber or 
rails, may be left intact, but all the rest 
should be girdled. In six or seven years, if 
the timber be hard, the trees will have died, 
the limbs have fallen to the ground and 
rotted there, with a portion of the bolls also, 
adding much to the fertility of the soil. 
Elders may spring up, but these are easily 
removed when clearing time comes. In 
chopping this deadened timber, much of it 
w ill be broken up in falling, thus materially 
lightening the labor of clearing. Such 
stumps as the fire spares oun be readily re¬ 
moved and burnt, thus preparing 1 the way 
for the Immediate introduction of the plow. 
By this preliminary labor the land will be 
rendered fully thirty per cent, better than it 
would be w ere 
How Burned Lime Liberates Potash From 
Clay. 
By the action of lime on clay the potash 
contained in the latter is liberated in a solu¬ 
ble condition. This may be shown by mix¬ 
ing one part of marl or common clay with 
half its weight of burned lime, adding water, 
and setting aside the mixture to repose for 
sometime. Even after the space of twenty- 
four hours an appreciable quantity of potash 
may be detected in the water. Gently roast¬ 
ing clay w ith quick lime promotes the de¬ 
composition of the insoluble silicate of 
potash lbuud in the debris of felspar and 
mica. Such v!,vf' Intimately mixed with 
lime (usually shell lime) forms common marl, 
it is probable that the three, four, and some¬ 
times five per cent, of potash loimd in New 
Jersey marl lias been eliminated from felspar 
or mica by the long continued action of lime. 
Disintegrated granite yields not. only potash, 
iron and other bases, but phosphorus and 
sulphur, from which phosphoric and sul¬ 
phuric studs are formed by the aid of oxygen 
in air and water. One of these acids com¬ 
bined with lime forms gypsum , and the other 
makes the earth of all bones, with some ad¬ 
ditions. 
The agricultural value of potash, lime, 
phosphorus and sulphur it, is impossible to 
estimate. The phosphate of June and potash 
forms about eighty per cent, or more of the 
ash of wheat, which is our most esteemed 
cereal. Commercial potash is too small in 
quantity, if not loo expensive, to meet the 
wants of American agriculture. Hence, this 
alkali must come from clay or marl for all 
farming purposes. 
It is a practical question of vast moment 
to learn how we can best separate potash and 
phosphoric acid from the mass of nearly 
worthless matter in New Jersey marl—leav¬ 
ing the latter at the pit, and sending the 
former to millions of w r heat fields which are 
too pour in the elements of this bread plant 
to give large harvests and cheap bread. 
Railways in New Jersey now transport 
thousands of tons of this fertilizer in its nat¬ 
ural and most crude state, to lands that need 
improvement. 'This fact proves not the 
more for clothing, did yield a, handsome in¬ 
come to him, but iL did not enrich the com¬ 
munity in which he lived, or make farm or 
neighborhood improvements, or build turn¬ 
pikes and canals and railroads; it did not 
fertilize the soil nor increase production. 
The commonest insignia of prosperity in 
an agricultural community are thoroughly 
constructed and furnished houses, substan¬ 
tial and convenient stables and other out¬ 
houses, farm implements and labor-saving 
machines, well fenced and thoroughly tilled 
farms, fine stock, good roads, tasteful school- 
houses, and the Lord’s houses at least as good 
as average Dutch burns. None of these 
things were general in the South; and an 
utter absence of them, with here and there an 
exception, was the rule in some of its most 
fertile districts. Neighborhoods could be. 
found, indeed, in which all these t hings flour¬ 
ished beautifully; but will not the candid 
planter admit that they were decided oases in 
a comparative desert, ? 
If lie will not admit this, let him tell us 
where the Southern wealth was concealed — 
/iow the circular and endless effort, to “ get 
more land to raise more cotton to buy more 
negroes ” tended to increase iL It centered 
mainly in the negroes at last,; and a million 
of them that were worth at, one time three 
hundred millions of dollars became at, another 
the representative of a thousand millions. 
It was simply a threefold inflation of the 
colored circulating medium, engendering ex¬ 
travagance and leading to debt, and bank¬ 
ruptcy. A million of foreigners in the West 
contributed far more to local and national 
prosperity, and coat ■nothing. The whole 
theory of investment in laborers, as an ele¬ 
ment of nat ional wealth, is utterly false nnd 
delusive; and with its fall topples half of 
the fancied wealth of the old Southern 
regime. Let. us bring to light a few facts in 
illustration of those views: 
Condition and Size of Farms .—In 1860 
there were 245,000,000 acres in farms in the 
fifteen slave States, of which 71.000,000 were 
in nominal cultivation, while in the Free 
States there were but 159,000,000 acres in 
farms and 88,000,000 of them were in cultiva¬ 
tion. The size of farms is generally an index 
of their culture. The farms of the South av¬ 
eraged three hundred and twenty acres; of 
the North one hundred and twenty-six 
acres; of the entire country, 190 acres. The 
average for Great Britain, in 1851, with 
nearly half the area of the country in im¬ 
mense holdings, was but one hundred and 
two acres. In tlieso fifteen States were 
764,867 farms; in the remainder 1,205,918. 
Valuation. — Tbo farms of Georgia com- 
the timber chopped and 
cleared off in a green slate. 
Iu wooded sections, not remote from vil¬ 
lages or cities, actual or hi prospect, or trav¬ 
ersed by railroads or likely soon to be, this 
mode of clearing would not be advisable, as 
the wood will pay largely above the cost of 
cutting and hauling to market. But when 
no such chance is presented, and the timber 
is to be felled and burnt on the ground, gird¬ 
ling is the true policy, for the reasons already 
assigned. It saves time and expense, and gives 
much better returns for the labor bestowed. 
Oj«(fr Hhflti.—I wish to l>e informed, through 
the Rural, of the bo*t method of comwrting 
oyster shells into lime. Having soon ii stated 
several tlmos that they could he reduced by fire 
and water, 1 tried the same, with not very goad 
6 Uecess. 1 wish to know if, in m-ing water. when 
ami in what quantity, to apply it. I mw by the 
statement of E. W. 8., In No. 17, that ho did not 
make useof any water in bUnbug shells. Which 
way Is the best, and how long does it take to burn 
them to lime, with a good lire, rightly made?— 
W. A. M„ Jim. 
Let those having experience answer this in¬ 
quiry. 
To those who wish to economize in this 
respect, 1 confidently recommend the ar¬ 
rangement for closing doors, which is illus¬ 
trated in connection with this article. 
A rope or cord, K, is secured to the inside 
ol the door, P, eight or twelve inches from 
the hinged -side of the same. This rope 
passes over a grooved pully, A, (placed iu a 
horizontal position.) thence over the one at 
B, (in a vertical position,) with a weight at¬ 
tached at the lower end, as shown. 
Pulleys may be of iron or wood, and from 
two to six inches in diameter, This is a 
simple, inexpensive arrangement, and an¬ 
swers well the purpose for which it was de¬ 
signed. L. D. Snook. 
Yates Co., N. Y. 
Pulverizing Uum-s. Will you inform me, 
through the RURAL, whether it is more econom¬ 
ical to convert bones into immure by the agency 
of sulphuric acid, at home, than to purchase tho 
superphosphate; and if so, what is the simplest 
and most effective process for reducing; the bones 
into the manure?—S., Ch<iutnu</uu Co., .V. Y. 
Let us have somebody’s experience In reply to 
this inquiry. 
Plan of Tenant House Wanted.—Will not 
some of the readers of the Rural givo us the 
best, plan for building a tenant house for small 
families. Our wants are: the cheapest style of 
framing weather boarding and the most suitable 
arrangement of the apartments. An early re¬ 
sponse would gratify. d. c. m. 
Bonsacks, Vn. 
ICE HOUSES FOR FARMERS, 
about the best way ol making small ice¬ 
houses for farmers’ use. Having had some 
experience in this line, I will give it for the 
benefit of tiie many farmers who need ice, 
yet think it is a costly luxury, beyond their 
go 1 built me an ice- 
Poiato Planter.—A respected correspondent 
writes us an elaborate notice of a potato planter, 
which be asserts meets a great want; and he 
suggests that lie shall strive to induce the 
patentee to advertise it in our columns. If it is 
as good a thing as he asserts, we hope the par¬ 
ties most interested in soiling it will advertise it 
properly. 
grown and very productive — declined in 
product fifteen per cent, iu ten years; and 
loss then three peeks per capita of Irish po¬ 
tatoes were produced. 
What can lie said hi favor of a sys- 
reach. Ten years ago 1 built me an ice¬ 
house twelve feel square inside, in tho north 
end of my wood-house, built double walls, 
and filled in with hemlock sawdust eighteen 
inches thick; plank floor with ten inches of 
sawdust under it and good drainage ; a floor 
overhead covered with twelve inches of saw¬ 
dust ; a double door also filled with saw¬ 
dust. Filled it with ice twenty-two inches 
thick, and clear as a crystal. I packed it 
snugly in the centre* a foot from the sides 
and, to make a sure thing of it, covered top 
and sides with sawdust. 
With the first warm days of June I no¬ 
ticed water coming from under my ice; by 
the middle of J illy, j ust when I needed it most, 
Ilrenchy Cows.—To keep cows from tearing 
down fences, some farmers bend a wire as large 
as a pipe stem so as to clasp in the nostrils of the 
animal, and then tying a piece of stout twine in 
this nose-jewel, on one side, pass it through 
holes bored in the tips of each horn and back to 
the nose, where it is drawn moderately tight 
and tied. 
“The following table is an average of returns of 
experts in planting from all tlie Cotton States to the 
Department of Agriculture, and is taken from an 
article u|ion "Southern Agriculture.” in the forth¬ 
coming volume: 
Product p*r»cre. Product per hand. 
Slates. Pounds. Pounds, 
North Carolina. ISO 1,475 
South Carolina...115 i.pjo 
Georgia.170 1,550 
Florida. 105 1,525 
Alubnmu.175 1.IG0 
Mississippi. 105 1,825 
Louisiana. 250 2.200 
Texas,..... 225 2,150 
Arkansas. 240 2.175 
Tennessee. 166 1.610 
Average.190 • 1,750 
Twine for Tying Corn Stalks,—A correspond¬ 
ent of the Ohio Farmer says she saw men bind¬ 
ing corn with twine, who said twenty-five cents 
worth would bind five acres of corn; and when 
the bundles are fed the* strings may be saved for 
use another season. 
Seed should be secured for the coming 
seeding; plot out the field operations while 
there is time to figure upon them. 
