found moving down stream. To remedy 
this, I opened a ditch along by the upland, 
on one side, and again across the upper end. 
The water is now gathered in these ditches, 
and conveyed outside, which leaves the 
meadow in one unbroken patch. But I did 
not learn the necessity of this till I tried to 
conduct, it through the middle. The experi¬ 
ence of one spring was enough. For miles 
below, I could see the deposits of soil along 
the banks of the stream, taken from the 
crumbling banks of my drain. The frost 
had loosened the surface, and away it went 
to top-dress the lands below. This difficulty 
being remedied, 1 turned my attention to 
draining. But I cannot now tell how I did 
it. My time is up, and my sheet full. 
Wcare, N. II. Z. Breed. 
himself could not state whether his “ King 
of the Earlies ” matured earlier than Early 
Rose or not, and as for its productiveness he 
had nothing to say. The Cusco, one of the 
Goodrich seedlings, is, without a doubt, the 
most productive of all varieties yet known; 
but no man can sell the tubers a second time 
to the same man for eating; and, judging 
from all I read, this “ King of the Earlies” 
ja about identical with it, and I, therefore, 
advise all my farming friends to figure up 
the point of first, cost of a sort — its probable 
yield, and the market result— before invest¬ 
ing in any potato-humbug. It may do for 
sharks anil men devoid of all interest but 
that of gain — men who have no real love of 
agriculture beyond dollars and cents, — but 
all true farmers, all who love the cultivation 
of the earth for the pleasure it gives in its 
rewards, ministering to the comfort, and sup¬ 
port of life, will avoid these high-blown ad¬ 
vertised humbugs as rocks similar to those 
of Morus Multicaulis, the Rohan potato, Chi¬ 
nese corn, etc., on which we old actors 
Ktnmhled. ADDI. 
ing the land to be naked in a few years. 
Whatever benefit there is in the wheat grow¬ 
ing Staffs in resting fields in clover and 
grass, may be regarded as more needed in 
the South, where a higher temperature, 
longer continued,gives to tillage more powej 
to consume organic substances. Nature 
never uses a plow, harrow, cultivator or hoe 
to improve land. She uses plants, from moss 
that grows on rocks to the nitrogenous 
leaves of the mulberry that will form flesh, 
bone and brain, as well as silk. 
Mr. Gkddes of Central New York, is a 
skillful agricultural engineer, nis lever for 
moving a dead soil, or one long cultivated, 
forward into greater fruitfulness than it ever 
had, is not ammonia, but gypsum. 11 is 
practice 1 regard as the best, expression of the 
most advanced agricultural science. But, 
suppose his land was on a poor granite sub¬ 
soil, with the surface soil washed off, in place 
of being on the Onondaga salt-bearing st rata, 
with the sea-salts of the Geddesburg wells 
diffused so as to rise up about the roots of 
renovating clover ? In the plenitude of these 
fertilizers, nothing more than gypsum is 
needful or used; and even that might be dis¬ 
pensed with. Aside from the facts indicated, 
gypsum is probably a more profitable power 
ON SWINE, 
SCIENCE WITH PRACTICE.—NO I 
Elmer Baldwin of La Salle Co., Ill., re¬ 
cently delivered a lecture at the Illinois In¬ 
dustrial University at Champaign, III, in 
which he stated that in 1868 there were in 
the United States thirty-three and one-half 
millions of swine, Illinois having one-thir¬ 
teenth of the whole. At Chicago alone, dur¬ 
ing 1868, were received 1,883,873 hogs, worth 
$30,000,000. 
Breed* nnd Breeding 
The Berkshire has retained the good opin¬ 
ion of the public longer than any other breod, 
and the improved Berkshire is probably our 
best breed. The Berkshire was first ol>- 
tained by crossing the Neapolitan with one 
of the large English breeds. 
The Suffolk is esteemed the best breed in 
England, and is a cross between the large, 
coarse English hog with the fine and delicate 
Chinese. It is of fair size, and of good fat¬ 
tening qualities. The pure Suffolk is almost 
destitute of hair, and is too tender for our 
Western treatment, but in fattening gives a 
good return for all the food consumed. 
There are several American breeds that 
have attracted attention, as the Magie hog in 
Ohio, and the OhtJfeter White from Pennsyl¬ 
vania, both good hogs, but hardly as yet 
entitled to be called distinct breeds. It re¬ 
quires a long continued breeding in one di¬ 
rection to form a distinct breed, so that all 
the p igs will be of uniform character, size 
and form. The tendency is to breed back to 
the most defective progenitor. 
He strongly condemned the practice of 
farmers’ indiscriminate crossing. There 
seems to be a mania for mixing all breeds, 
while tlio aim should be to preserve each 
breed distinct and pure. Both parents 
should be at least one year old before bring 
allowed to breed, and if the female could be 
kept till five or six years old for that pur¬ 
pose, it would materially improve the size 
and vigor of the pigs. The period of gesta¬ 
tion is one hundred and twelve days, and 
the sow should have such food and exercise 
as to secure perfect health. April pigs are 
best, worth one-third more than a July pig, 
one-half more than September pigs. 
Fattening. 
The hog must arrive fully at maturity be¬ 
fore it can be easily fattened. A growing 
pig should never Ik* fed corn to any amount. 
It contains too much oil, and docs not. con¬ 
tain the elements of growth. Bran, shorts, 
grass and succulent vegetables should be 
their food. After weaning the pig, it. should 
never be made extremely fat. It checks the 
growth, and injures its thrill afterwards. 
Nor should pigs he allowed to become thin 
in flesh, Like a hill of corn, if once it be¬ 
comes feeble and sickly, no after culture can 
undo the injury. 
The hog is impatient of both heat and 
cold; any mutual exertion during the heat 
of summer, especially if in full flesh, will 
frequently cost him his life. Ho must be 
of England has given a wonderful impulse 
to improvements in the several branches of 
husbandly and tillage, in the United King¬ 
dom, within the last thirty yearn At the 
time this noble Society adopted 
happy and expressive, 
in central Georgia commenced raising 
on thin piney-wc - 
a motto so 
a poor young planter 
cotton 
roods land; and out ol this 
poor soil he has - produced a fortune ot some 
two or three hundred thousand dollars by 
combining agricultural science with practice. 
The professional ideas of" one who lias fairly 
won the distinction ot long and large suc¬ 
cess arc alwavs worth considering. Our 
Georgia friend (David Dickson, Esq. of 
Sparta,) thus writes In the Southern Cultiva¬ 
tor for September, 1807: 
“The only Jnduocment I have for writi hr is 
to help, or try to help, our ruined pooplo to make 
allying. My practice says that ammonia is ttie 
cheapest and best crop grower of any one thing; 
and by its use you n»y organise every element 
of the atmosphere that is needed In crops, to be 
returned annually (to the soil) with compound in¬ 
terest. Ammonia hunts up all the soluble unor¬ 
ganised manures; and makes Insoluble soluble, 
to bo returned annually In a form more soluble. 
With ammonia u. planter can largely Increase 
annually the organic matter on his land, and 
also Increase the inorganic manures that are sol¬ 
uble, and get fifty per cent, on each investment 
of ammonia. At the same time use all the home¬ 
made or gathered manures you can, such na 
leaves, pine straw, (the leaf of the long-leaf pi no 
is so called) swamp muck, &c.” 
To accumulate plant food in a nearly sterile 
soil, whether sand or clay predominates, in 
the most economical manner, is a problem 
that requires for its solution sound practical 
and scientific knowledge. Such knowledge 
alone will be successful, in an eminent degree, 
iu drawing many bales of cotton, or many 
bushels of wheat., out of atmospheric air, 
aud insoluble minerals at and near the sur¬ 
face of the ground. In a word, the art of 
raising large crops and very cheap crops, on 
poor land, Is an attainment which a large 
majority of agricultural readers have yet to 
acquire. In view of the uncertainty of life, 
the undersigned will try to make this deeply 
interesting subject perfectly clear and plain 
iu the twentieth volume of the Rural New- 
Yoekek. Our abandoned old fields in the 
planting States nature always improves. 
Her ways are the ways of God, and the 
right ways for man. The atmosphere con¬ 
tains everywhere a little of that volatile 
alkali called ammonia, whose principal ele¬ 
ment forms a distinguishing part in the 
gluten of wheat, the legumin of peas and 
beans, in the fiber of muscle, and the mass 
of brain. That vivifying power, called elec¬ 
tricity, forms ammonia under favoring con¬ 
ditions, and almost justifies the assertion 
that it also develops the lowest forms of plant 
and animal life without a parent germ, egg, 
or cell. It is not, however, necessary that 
we master the relations of electricity to life 
on the one side, nor to solar heat and light, 
on the other, nor to chemical force lx-tween 
these two extremes, before we may largely 
profit by such natural resources as God gives 
us. A few days ago I saw on a magnificent 
estate on the Hudson (that of the Hon. Wm. 
tem.r.Y.'i the nronrictor dviug directions to 
frbstmm 
KEEPING STOCK, 
What is it Worth to Keep norses. Cattle, 
Sheep, Arc., per Week ? 
Tnrs question having been asked me, I 
will give you my rule for keeping them, de¬ 
rived from long experience. For horses it is 
worth as many shillings per week as hay Is 
worth dollars per ton. If hay is worth ten 
dollars per ton, it is worth ten shillings per 
week ; if fifteen, fifteen shillings ; if twenty, 
twenty shillings, and so on. This estimate 
Is for good buy only. If a man has a large 
range and an open winter, horses can be kept 
for much less. But one need not be al any 
loss to make contracts if this rule is adhered 
to. Sometimes it is necessary to feed some 
grain; that should be an extra charge, unless 
a good deal is fed, then the hay is worthless. 
Cattle will eat as much as horses, but they 
are usually kept on cheaper hay, red top, 
not so merchantable, and coarse fodder; con¬ 
sequently they can be wintered for two- 
thirds as much as horses. That is, if good 
hay is worth twelve dollars per ton, it is 
worth eight shillings per week, &c. 
For several years I cut, and for two years 
steamed food, for thirty head of stock — fif¬ 
teen horses and liileen cattle. They con¬ 
sumed the same quantity — cattle the same 
as horses. Fed stalks alone and four cents 
worth of bran per day (twenty-seven cents 
per week;) bran cost ten dollars per ton. 
They went through the winter fat. In my 
estimates of sheep, I have counted five sheep 
to eat as much hay as a full grown steer. 
In Winter droves of cattle can be fed for 
as many cents per day as the hay fed is 
worth dollars per ton. Hay at ten dollars, 
cattle at ten cents per day ; fifteen dollars, 
at fifteen cents per day, Ac. And to pasture 
them in summer it is worth, two-thirds as 
much as to feed hay iu winter. If fifteen cents 
per day in Winter, it is worth ten cents to 
pasture in summer; and, allowing five sheep 
to eat as much as a steer, it is worth two 
CRANBERRY CULTURE. 
How to Reclaim noil Use Swamp and Wet 
I>Ieadow Lauds. 
I promised to say something more about 
my cranberry culture, and also of my mead¬ 
ow that 1 have reclaimed. My cranberry 
meadow has not paid large dividends for the 
last few years, from the fact, I think, that the 
grass and bushes were not cared for and kept 
from growing among the vines. A portion 
of it was not" turfed, and there being grass 
roots already in the soil, or mud, the vines 
did not get the lead, and they are choked by 
them. Another reason is that the dam being 
an earth one, is often bored in the winter by 
muskrats and the w ater drawn off. Another 
is, that not near so much -water comes from 
the swamp as used to, so that it cannot be 
flowed at the right time in the summer. 
The brooks are not so large as they used to 
be. Some old trout brooks, that were cele¬ 
brated for their yearly yield of this wily 
little victim of the crooked steel, are hardly 
known, A portion of the time during sum¬ 
mer their beds are nearly dry. The. cause of 
this 1 do not know, hut imagine it is the re¬ 
sult of the “woodman’s ax.” There has 
been a general raid upon the old monarclis 
of our hills, and they no longer protect the 
soil beneath them, vyith their “ outstretched 
arms. Their u Canopy of leaves” no longer 
shields the earth from the evaporating powers 
of a hot summer’s sun. Consequently, the 
DISEASES OF FARM STOCK. 
A correspondent of the Journal of Agri¬ 
culture proposes the following question to 
readers familiar with chemistry in its appli¬ 
cations to vegetables and animals: 
“The idea has been suggested in some of 
my reading, that the multiplying of diseases 
among all kinds of farm stock may be owing 
to the fact that certain qualities or ingredi¬ 
ents which are always found in virgin soils, 
and which are essential to the healthy de¬ 
velopment of animal organisms, have be¬ 
come bo far exhausted that the vegetation — 
the feed now produced is deficient in those 
elements, and hence those various diseases. 
Is there any ground for this theory V Is it 
possible that iron, for instance, which forms 
so important a part of Lhe animal structure, 
maybe abundantly supplied to vegetation 
growing on virgin soil, and through it, to 
cattle, and yet may, by long cultivation, be 
so entirely absorbed from the soil that the 
vegetation growing there will be entirely des¬ 
titute of that element V I do not believe this 
theory, nor do 1 entirely disbelieve it, for it 
Is easy to see that there may be many grains 
of truth in it. 
Dentists tell us that one cause of teeth de¬ 
caying in early life is because the system is 
not supplied with proper food to form en¬ 
amel. The same general law may apply to 
domestic animals. Who can tell 
Wrinkles on Horns. — Does the number of 
wrinkles, as they are called on cows’ horns, al¬ 
ways surely indicate the age? Some say that il 
they come in at two years they will have one, 
if they do not come in till three years old they 
will not have any till they are three years; others 
that, if they go farrow one season they omit a 
wrinkle. 1 would like to have the opinion of 
others.—A. P. H., Dryden , N. Y. 
tion of the digestive organs. Ascertain the 
exact amount by measurement 
Plenty of water, with occasionally a little 
salt, coal and ashes, to correct the acidity of 
the stomach of the porker, completes the 
diet. This system of feeding is adapted to 
corn fattening, as practiced at the West. His 
opinion concerning the value of corn when 
ted to hogs w as that ten pounds for each 
bushel of grain consumed is a fair estimate. 
This, with pork at ten dollars per hunched, 
makes corn worth one dollar per bushel 
Cnllie Disease*.—G. Davib, Lancaster Co., Pa., 
6aysif people will but study tho history of epi¬ 
demics among mankind there can be no difficulty 
In tracing the cause and course of epizsoties 
among the lower animals. 
TP 
