another stable some idle horses were kept, 
and wintered on straw, and jnst enough 
grain to maintain them in fair condition. 
There is a great deal of straw in that pile of 
manure, and it. is by no means so valuable 
as the other. On the other side of the yard 
is the pile from the hog-pen, which is richer 
than either of the proceeding, and beats any¬ 
thing in the yard, except the manure in the 
hen-house. In the center of the yard stood 
the straw stack, and there is a layer of de¬ 
cayed vegetable matter, mixed with some 
animal waste, two or three feet thick. It is 
bulky, and looks rich when wet, but is really 
of the least value. 
Now, this is all farm yard manure, and 
there is as much difference in its respective 
[ values as in various grades of wool, butter 
or grain, llow am I to judge of its value 
and effect unless I recognize this difference? 
If 1 report that so many loads arc manure 
enough for an acre of wheat or onions, of 
what value is that report to other farmers, 
unless they know whether they were taken 
from the pig-pen or bottom of the straw 
stack ? 
Then again there is my neighbor on one 
side, who feeds five hundred sheep each 
winter, and makes three hundred loads of 
farm yard manure. On the other side an¬ 
other neighbor raises wheat largely and lets 
the straw rot down in the yard with the aid 
of a few young cattle. He tllinks it don’t 
pay to haul manure far, but the first wishes 
lie could make enough to keep one team 
hauling the year round. Don’t it seem that 
farm yard manure is rather an unmeaning 
and unscientific term ? Ciiiel. 
the great apostle of all agricultural improve¬ 
ment in England sends Washington a copy 
of his “ Anals of Agriculture,” and offers to 
furnish him with “ men, cattle, tools, seeds, or 
anything else that may add to his rural 
amusements.” lie gladly avails himself of 
this generous offer, and orders “ two of the 
simplest constructed plows, for land which 
is neither very 'heavy nor sandy, to be 
drawn by two horses; some cabbqfo seed 
for field culture; ten bushels of sainfoin 
seed; 8 bushels of winter vetch; two 
bnshds of rye-grass seed; 50 lbs. oi hop clo¬ 
ver seed.” 
lie mentions a “bailiff” (farm superin¬ 
tendent) sent him from England, who is “ a 
plain, honest farmer, industrious, understand¬ 
ing the management of stock, but how far 
his ability may be equal to a pretty extensive 
concern, is questionable.” 
Washington's experience in attempting 
to make a superintendent of the best Eng¬ 
lish farm laborer, was not different from our 
experience of the present day. Their edu¬ 
cation is too narrow and Unified to fit them 
for foremen. Each is excellent in his special 
department, but useless out off it. 
Plan of n Farm Yard. 
Washngton reads Young's “Anals of 
Agriculture” “ with much satisfaction,” and 
asks him for a “plan of the most complete 
and useful farm yard, for farms of 500 acres." 
“ Iu this” he says, “I mean to comprehend 
the barn and every appurtenance which 
ought to be annexed to the yard. The sim¬ 
plest and most economical plan would be pre¬ 
ferred, provided the requisites arc all in¬ 
cluded.” 
■ Here is the same plain, economical, grand 
man as at I lie head of the army. Improve¬ 
ment measured by utility; grand results with 
lliGileast expense of money and force. 
He next writes Young that he has re¬ 
ceived the seeds and plows, that the “ sain¬ 
foin comes up thin;” the operation of the 
plows pleases him; he is preparing mate- I 
rials to build a barn precisely agreeable to 
the plan sent, which lie thinks “ an excellent 
one.” Then ho gives an account of the ruin¬ 
ous and wasteful system of cultivation in 
Virginia, by which one field after another is 
ruined and abandoned. But he says many, 
with himself, arc endeavoring to get into 
Young’s system of rotation. He inquires 
about WiNi.ow’e mill for separating the grain 
from t he heads of corn (probably a rude form 
of thrashing machine.) and orders it sent to 
him, if “ ignorant laborers can work it.” 
Again he writes Young in reference to his 
willingness to rent four farms surrounding 
Mount Vernon, containing 8,2(10 acres, which 
lie proposes to rent to emigrants at one dol¬ 
lar per acre. He sends an accurate plan of 
these farms, drawn by himself, with the fields 
all marked, numbered, and the acres given, 
lie Uses a Drill. 
lie sends Thomas Bland an implement 
he calls a “ drill plow” and says, “ where laud 
is free from stones, stumps and large clods, it 
will plant Indian corn, wheat, barley, peas, 
or any round grain,” and that lie has sown 
oats with it, “ which is the most uufit grain 
for such a machine.” This is, probably, the 
earliest use and mention of the drill in 
America. It was, probably, one of Sir John 
Aubtruther’s improvements on Jethro 
Tull. 
He writes one Richard Peters about the 
construction of a “ triangular harrow with 
trowel tines” to cultivate between rows of 
corn and potatoes, on mellow bottom land. 
>■'-#0 proposes to plant corn wide apart and a 
row of potatoes between, says “some think 
it bad for the land, some no^” but as he 
planted corn eight feet apart, it gave abund¬ 
ant room for a row of potatoes and much 
sun and air for the corn. 
lie Instruct* His lUauauer. 
When about to leave Mount V#*rnon to en¬ 
ter on hia first term as President, he shows 
his appreciation of the duties of a manager 
in his letter To John Fairfax. He says:— 
“If your exertions shall appear to deserve 
it, it is my intention to make the wages of 
the year you are now engaged for £50 in¬ 
stead ol £40, my own motives for it being to 
encourage you to use every endeavor in your 
power to promote my interest. * * For, 
as I have often remarked to you* contrivance 
in business chid judicious arrangement of it 
should be the leading trad in. a manager. In¬ 
deed, no estate can be well conducted with¬ 
out them. Unless the different kinds of 
business, which occupy the laborers of every 
plantation or farm, can lie brought into one 
view -and seen, at a distance, they will for¬ 
ever be interfiling and treading on the 
heels of each other.” It appears that his 
patience had been often sorely tried with the 
mismanagement of his affairs. Who, that 
has ever relied upon hired help to carry on 
a farm, does not deeply sympathize with 
him in the following plain statement of 
faithlessness ? 
lie proceeds:—“It is with pain I receive 
(be Saturday night’s report, for no week 
passes without a diminution of my stock. 
Nor t it less painful to me to see the condi¬ 
tion of my work horses; some dying, others 
scarcely able to k walk, uuincumbered with a 
plow. And I might add, as a matter of no 
less concern, that it is vain and idle for me 
to attempt to stall-feed any kind of meats 
when I have only my expense for my pains, 
without a morsel of meat fit to appear at my 
table or for market. But I rest in hopes 
that these things will undergo a change for 
the better.” 
He Writes Jefferson. 
In a letter to Thomas Jefferson he 
states some experience, which will he of 
service to farmers at this day. Jefferson 
desired to import the winter - vetch, but 
Washington tells him he had often tried it 
without success, and both had tried lucerne 
unsuccessfully; he had tried the field pea of 
Europe, and it grew well, but was infested 
with a bug; (this bug still infests the pea,) 
he had great expectations from green dress¬ 
ing with buckwheat, but it had not answered 
his expectations, yet thinks it w ill by plow¬ 
ing in two crops in a season and then sow¬ 
ing wheat; thinks potatoes the best amelior¬ 
ating crop on stiff, hard bound land, and fits 
it admirably for wheat, oats or clover. 
Modern science would not agree to this, 
as potatoes are too exhausting a crop to 
serve ns an ameliorator of the soil, yet the 
apparent effect upon a hard, stubborn soil is 
good, ns it greatly improves its tilth, and 
thus puts it in better condition for wheat, 
hut continuing this round of potatoes and 
grain would soon render t he soil barren. 
In a letter to Mr. Wm. Strickland of 
England, he says the agriculture of this 
country is “ wretched;” t hat farmers attempt 
too much; that one-fourth of the land well 
cultivated would be more profitable. 
lionrJs ol' Amtell I tine. 
He proceeds to say:—“I have endeavored 
both in a public and private character, to 
encourage the establishment of Boards of 
Agriculture in this country, but hitherto in 
vain; and what is still more extraordinary 
and scarcely to be believed, I have endeav¬ 
ored ineffectually to discard the pernicious 
practice Just mentioned, from my own estate; 
but in my absence, pretexts of one kind or 
another, have always been paramount to 
orders. Since the first establishment of 
Boards of Agriculture in Great Britain J 
have considered it one of the most valuable 
institutions of modern times.” 
Roller*. 
He continues:—“Rollers I have been in 
the constant use of lor many years, in the 
way you mention, and find considerable ben¬ 
efit in passing them over winter gj-ain in 
spring as soon as the ground will admit a 
hoof on it. I use them also on spring grain 
after sowing, and before, to reduce the clods 
when tJie ground is rough." 
A Hint for Sol line Crop*. 
“ My clover," he says, “ is generally sown 
with spring grain, but when the ground is 
not too stiff and binding, it succeeds very 
well with wheat. Orchard grass , of all ' 
others, is, in my opinion, the best mixture 
with clover; it blooms precisely at the same 
time, rises quick again after cutting , stands 
thick, yields well, both cattle and horses are 
fond of it, green or in hay.” 
This is an important hint to those who 
raise crops for soiling. Clover is generally 
sown alone for this purpose, as most other 
grasses mature at. a different time. The 
above statement as to its maturing with 
clover I saw demonstrated on the grounds of 
a friend on the 20th of June, and that it 
“rises quick after cutting”-was shown by its 
having grown nearly an inch the first, day 
after cutting. It will be seen hereafter that 
Washington practiced soiling his horses 
and mules. 
System In Farming. 
We now come to his last instructions to 
James Anderson, his manager of the farms, 
which is dated December 10, 1799, and ap¬ 
pears to have been written only four days 
before his death. In this he reiterates and 
sets out more fully and completely his ideas 
of system in farming. This document, per¬ 
haps, more than any other will give an ade¬ 
quate idea of the thoroughness and com¬ 
pleteness of the man as a farmer. And we 
have no hesitation in saying that when his 
views of agriculture shall be studied and the 
spirit of his plans understood, his opinions 
upon this subject will be consulted with as 
much respect as upon matters of state, war 
or love of country. Who but Washington 
ever cherished agriculture so near his heart 
and had it so interwoven with his daily 
thoughts, that while at the head and super¬ 
intending the affairs of this great nation, 
with all its distracting cares, would find lime 
to write a long letter of instructions every 
week to the manager of his farms, requiring 
from him a weekly account of all his opera¬ 
tions and all that transpired ? 
He was so wise and so practical a man 
that lie saw no reason why agriculture should 
not be conducted with the same regard to 
rules, system aud foresight, as other business 
activities; and having large landed poses- 
sions, he proceeded to lay out the business 
of each farm with as much care and method 
as he exhibited when Commander-in-Ckief 
of the Army. 
He says:—“A system closely pursued, 
although it may not in all its parks, be the 
best that could lie devised, is attended with 
innumerable advantages. The conductor of 
the business, in this case, can never be in 
any dilemma in his proceedings. The over¬ 
seers and even the laborers, know what is 
to be done, and what they arc capable of 
doing in ordinary seasons. * * * Economy 
iri all things is as commendable in a man¬ 
ager as it is beneficial and desirable to the 
employer; and on a farm, ii shows itself in 
nothing more evidently, or more essentially, 
than in not suffering the provender to be 
wasted, but in taking care that every atom 
of it. is used to the best advantage; and 
likewise in not permitting the plows, har¬ 
ness and other instruments of husbandry or 
the gears belonging to them, to b« unneces¬ 
sarily exposed, trodden under foot, run over 
by carts, or abused in other respects. More 
good is derived from attending to the miuu- 
tise of a farm than strikes people at first 
view.” 
We have room only for short extracts 
from this last letter, which was accompanied 
by a “plan” containing directions for the 
management and cultivation of three farms, 
extending to thirty closely - written folio 
pages; and yet Washington expected to 
reside at home and exercise a supervision 
himself over all. 
In the “plan,” each farm is divided into 
fields, numbered, and directions given for 
the cultivation of each through a regular ro¬ 
tation: how pasture grounds were to be 
used; plans for cleaning and extending 
meadows; mud to be raised from the swamps 
and river and made into compost; cattle to 
lie penned from May till November on the 
fields intended for wheat.; thus, at night, his 
cattle top-dressed his wheat fields; the work 
horses and mules were in winter to be fed in 
stalls, “ littered and cleaned ’’ and “ plen- 
teously feed with cut straw and as much 
grain, meal, or bran, with a little salt, as 
will keep them always in good condition for 
work; for spring, summer and autumn, 
soiling them with green food; first with rye, 
then with lucerne, next with clover, with 
very Mtlle grain, will enable them to per¬ 
form their work: how the oxen and other 
horned cattle are to be fed and housed: the 
sheep to be protected iu winter: a given 
number of good hogs to be raised instead of 
an indiscriminate number of iudifferent ones, 
and for this purpose the “ best breeders must 
be selected.” 
Was clover or grass, one or two years, corn 
and potatoes, wheat, buckwheat turned un¬ 
der, wheat, clover or grass, with some varia¬ 
tions. Tbe rotation for each field was fixed 
for six or seven years in advance. His plan 
laid out the w ork on his farms till 1806. He 
had become restive under tbe numerous 
failures to carry out his plans, and determined 
to draw a tighter rein and see if, under a 
closer personal supervission, lie could not 
enforce a better discipline, and bring order 
out of confusion. And with this end in view 
he closes his letter to the manager with this 
prophetic sentence:—“ The account of the 
present quarter must be made final, as an 
entire new scene will take place afterwards.” 
Tliis was literally true; an “entire new 
scene did take, place ” in four days! and tbe 
great and good man passed to an “ account ” 
which was “ made final ” and, we trust, 
satisfactory.— e. w. b. 
BROOKS ON MOWERS 
Hugh T. Brooks, in an interesting arti¬ 
cle on Haying, which comes to us a little 
out of season, writes as follows : 
Blessings ou the “ mowers !” They have 
been much improved, and we now have quite 
a number that work admirably. The other 
day several leading machines had a trial in 
my fields, among which were the Hubbard, 
the Buckeye, the Climax, the Eureka, the 
Yankee, the Johnson and the Cycloid. Their 
work was admirably performed; I could not 
tell which did the best, but I am clearly, de¬ 
cidedly and emphatically convinced that 
farmers should patronize those establish¬ 
ments that put the best iron, the beet wood, 
the best work, and afterwards supply “ ex¬ 
tras” at a fair price. “ Twenty-five cents” 
for a "section” (a piece of the knife) that 
costs, perhaps, four cents, is a kind of swin¬ 
dle that people should not indulge in who 
look to tbe public for patronage; $1.50 for 
so much cast iron as could be furnished for 
fifteen cents is loo cool for hot weather. 
I must confess that machines arc shame¬ 
fully misused by persons who have no me¬ 
chanical knowledge, and are no more fit to 
manage a “mower” than a thieving legis¬ 
lator is fit, to go to the Senate or Assembly. 
First prepare your meadows by the re¬ 
moval of sticks, stones and snags of all sorts, 
then keep your machine oiled, keep the 
knives sharp, rub them with a good stone 
or filo every time you go round a live-acre 
lot, tighten the nuts every time round till 
you are sure they are fast; and, lastly, under¬ 
stand the principles of the machine, so as to 
know if everything works right. 
If some of these agents, who understand 
their business, could be employed to lecture 
at our County Fairs on the “ Uses and at)uses 
of mowers and reapers,” it would be werth 
a good deal to novices in this kind of ma¬ 
chinery. 
By wearing and straining, the parts of the 
mower get out of place—the points in the 
section do not move, as they should, pre¬ 
cisely from ono guard to the other; the cogs 
do not mesh closely, but just catch at the 
end, and soon wear off, and crowd, slip by 
or break, after worrying the team Half to 
death by hard drawing. 
Machines should be constructed, if possi¬ 
ble, so as aot to get out of place, but every 
manager should know whether everything 
is right; and if wrong he should know how 
to put it right. 
Bullard's Patent Hay Tedder was ex¬ 
hibited hero by Geo. A. fiquiER, who lias 
improved it. This wet, season will couvince 
farmers of its importance. When we irri¬ 
gate, or top-dross our meadows, and keep 
our cattle and sheep out of them fall and 
spring, we shall have big crops of grass that 
will make this implement indispensable. 
Mr. Pettibone of Attica and Mr. Hunt¬ 
ington of Perry showed us excellent steel 
horse rakes, that make raking hay pastime 
for boys. 
HANGING GRINDSTONES 
I send a sketch of my grindstone frame 
and manner of hanging 6tone, which will 
require very little effort to make it under¬ 
stood by any farmer, and I would say here 
that I call it the former’s grindstone. I take 
an iron bar five feet long, one and a quarter 
inches square, have two bearings t urned, one 
at one end, the other twelve inches from the 
other end, get a good blacksmith to turn a 
crank on the end and put a good iron pin in, 
on which put a good turned wooden handle; 
hang the stone at the end, as represented. 
For frame, take four-inch ecantling, cut ends 
slanting, and nail or frame on one-and-a- 
quartcr by four-inch stuff for sides. Spike 
on legs of same stuff, having shoulder, so 
they will receive the thickness of side-pieces. 
Any common farmer can make one of those 
frames in two hours, but a good mechanic 
can make a better one in half a day; the 
latter is cheapest. 
For boxes, take hard wood blocks, bore 
holes the size of bearings, saw one in halves 
lengthwise, in order to put on; spike or bolt 
to frame, and you will have a rig that you 
would not swap for all the rollers or patent 
frames in town. You will see that you can 
grind an ax and turn the handle; you can 
grind a mower knife without changing sides; 
you can grind a hand scythe (if you knoio 
hoie) without cutting the turner; you can 
also grind a great many other things, these 
rainy days, t hat ought to be ground. 
Have a bucket of water hung over the 
stone, with gimlet hole to supply water, and 
never let one side of a stone 6tand in a trough 
of water; never allow the sun to shine on a 
stone, and with constant use and not too 
much water your 6tone will wear true and 
cut fast. 
PAINTING. 
TnERE is no doubt but that farmers tvould 
find it to their advantage to paint more than 
they do in general. For fences, implements, 
barns, and other outbuildings, the farmer 
needs to employ no skilled workman at high 
prices. And with some experience, and the 
use of an ordinary amount of brains, there 
is no outside painting on the farm hut what 
lie can do well. The first step is to lay in a 
supply of oils, paints, brushes, &c., ho that 
the material will be on band, ready for use 
when a leisure time occurs, for painting is 
independent of the season, and has all times 
for its own. For such works as I have men¬ 
tioned cheap paints are preferable to costly 
ones. I should use but little lead. I don’t 
think the axim “ The best is the cheapest” 
true in this case. In the first place one is 
hardly sure of getting a pure article of white 
lead, and in the next there are other and 
much cheaper paints, which are about as 
durable for outside work. For yellow and 
brown shades, the Brandon paints arc as 
good, perhaps, as any of the earths. Vene¬ 
tian red, prepared from iron, is one of the 
most durable of colors. From tlieso any 
6hade of color, suitable for the work I have 
mentioned, may be prepared. 
It is not necessary to use linseed oil wholly. 
For a priming I like crude petroleum even 
better, and it costs only twenty-five or thirty 
cents per gallon. Mix the paint rather thin. 
It will dry very quick, and, no doubt, forms 
an excellent preservative for the wood, and a 
good preparation for the second coat of paint. 
The latter may be mixed with linseed oil and 
crude petroleum, half and half, and if only 
one coat be given the work, it should he so 
mixed at first. 
I am painting, in this way, about eighty 
rods of picket fence and some outbuildings, 
and do not find it a costly job There is 
plenty of leisure time iu the course of the 
year to do such jobs, if one has the materials 
at hand. I notice that one of your corre¬ 
spondents complains that earth paints don’t 
last more than three or four years. Up this 
way, that is about as long as we expect 
white lead to look well. Pekin Tone. 
innx 
emtemtj) 
WHAT IS FARM YARD MANURE? 
I have just been reading some account of 
a very thorough analysts of farm yard 
manure, made by Prof. Tanneu and Dr. 
Voelcker, the gist of which is that the fer¬ 
tilizing properties of such manure are con¬ 
tained in a very small part of the whole. 
Some thirteen or fourteen hundred pounds 
of a ton of fresh manure were water, three 
or four hundred pounds inferior solid mat¬ 
ter, and about fifty pounds absolute fertiliz¬ 
ing material. Fresh manure was found to 
contain but little ammonia, and the most of 
its nitrogen was in an insoluble state. Both 
these latter substances are evolved by de¬ 
composition, and should be retained and 
saved by absorbents. Manure should not be 
subjected to the wash of rains, or much of 
the soluble portion will surely be lost. If 
fresh manure be spread on the surface of the 
land it undergoes but. little loss, The best 
way of applying it to crops, according 
to Dr. Voelcker, is to spread it on the 
surface, and let the rains carry the enrich¬ 
ing properties into the soil. 
When we read of the effect or treatment of 
farm yard manure, the question often arises, 
What is it ? Or rather, what part of farm 
yard manure have we under consideration. 
Let us take a look into Hie farm yard and 
see. In this stable some steers were fat¬ 
tened for tbe butcher last winter, and they 
ate a great deal of meal, some roots, hay, and 
were bedded down with straw. There in 
front is a pretty rich pile of manure. In 
“ If you know how!” Well, if you don’t, 
I will tell you; and to make it plain I want 
to illustrate the point of a scythe. Having 
the grindstone turned from you, hold the 
heel of the scythe from you, while you grind 
the entire length of both sides; do not turn 
at the point and hold the point from you. 
Grinding both sides in this manner you will 
make a sickle edge that will cut better, and 
last longer, than any other way you can grind 
a scythe. If you grind so that the stone 
cuts in opposite directions on opposite sides, 
you destroy this perfect sickle edge which 
is necessary in a perfect cutting scythe; 
always grind the upper side last, and whet 
the upper side last, so as to turn the edge 
down. 
I have shown in the sketch how the scythe 
should be ground, which should be on both 
sides, as shown. Austin B. Culver. 
