1 
Afield flJrajja. 
THE CULTURE OF SAGE. 
Sage is most profitably grown as a second 1 
crop. The seed should bo sown iu early 
spriug in drills about eight inches apart, 
the young plants kept free from weeds, and 
the ground about them pulverized by fre¬ 
quent hoeing. Previous to sowing the seed 
the ground should be enriched with some 
light kind of manure, thoroughly rotted 
and well spaded under. After lining down 
with the rake the lines are struck out, the 
seed sown—one ounce being sufficient for 
200 feet of drill—and covered lightly. If 
the ground is dry enough to permit, it is 
always best, arter the seed is sown and 
covered, to roll the bed or pat it down with 
the spade. This is very important, particu¬ 
larly iu dry weather. Many argue that the 
less compact the ground the greater its 
power to absorb the dews, and consequent¬ 
ly the better It is for the seeds. This, at 
first sight, would appear to be true; but, 
though more moisture is absorbed at night, 
it is also more easily evaporated during the 
day, and it Is the extremes of moisture and 
dryness, rapidly alternating, that cause 
seeds to shrivel and die. In very dry 
weather, if 1 have occasion to sow seeds, 1 
frequently walk over the drills, pressing 
the soil upon tliu seeds with the bull of the 
foot. A uniform degree of moisture, even 
if it is not great, with the proper amount of 
heat, will soon germinate seeds. This is an 
important point, and one iu which failure 
very often occurs. 
The young plants are allowed to grow in 
the seed-bed until July, when they are 
planted in the field, the rows fifteen inches 
apart and the plants in the rows ten inches. 
J3y frequent hoeing and proper attention, 
the sage will completely cover t he ground 
by early fall, provided, of course, that the 
ground has been well manured, when it 
should be gathered before hard frosts. 
A ready markot is found for It, in the 
cities, in the green state, but those unhandy 
to market generally dry it and keep until 
winter. 
To dry it nicely requires somo care. We 
stretch stout twine across a building, or at¬ 
tach it to the rafters, having the strings 
about 18 inches apart, then out the sage 
close to the ground and hang on these 
strings. After a little practice it is rapidly 
done, as the plants, by being cut low, will 
not average more than three branche s each, 
making the labor of hanging much lighter 
than if it should he cut high. The plants 
should not be crowded too much upon thn 
strings, and should bo abundantly aired, as 
this will tend to givo tlm sage, when dried, 
a lively green color. When preparing for 
market, which it is best to do Oil a damp 
day, we take from the strings ami place in 
a pile convenient to the workman, who, 
with a block before him, grasps a small 
handful and chops off the ends of the 
branches, while two or three other work¬ 
men are engaged in tying lit small bunches. 
One active chopper will thus keep in em¬ 
ploy about three tyers. The coarse ends of 
kirn branches are useless for markot pur¬ 
poses. 
Some markets prefer to buy by weight, 
when it is prepared the same as when sold 
by the bunch, except that it is not tied, but 
packed loosely in bags, containing 5, 10, or 
20 pounds. 
We consider this method of raising sage 
much superior to the old one of allowing 
the plants to remain in the ground year 
after year. By this plan, it occupies the 
ground but two and a half or three months, 
and may follow, as a second crop, early 
vegetables that are cleared off by the mid¬ 
dle or last of July. M. 
■-♦ ♦ » 
POTASH FOR POTATOES. 
stances holding potash in large quantities. 
For six or eight generations iu New Eng¬ 
land, our fathers have been exhausting the 
soil, by removing these agents iu their pota¬ 
to and other crops, and wc have reached a 
time when the vegetables are starving in 
our fields for want of their proper food. 
Our farmers have found that new land gives 
the best crops, and this is due to the fact 
that such fields afford the most pot ash. But 
so long as we crop our pastures so unrea¬ 
sonably, we cannot resort to new laud, as 
land is not new that has had its potash and 
phosphatic elemeuts removed by grazing 
animals. Remember that a potato field 
which gives but 100 bushels to tho aero re¬ 
quires at least IGO pounds of potash, but by 
allowing the tops to decay upon the field, GO 
pounds of this is restored to tho soil again, 
as that amount is contained in them. A 
medium crop of potatoes requires twice as 
much phosphoric acid us a medium crop of 
wheat, so that in two years with wheat, tho 
land is deprived of no more of tho agout 
than it loses iu one year with potatoes. 
--- 
SUGAR BEETS IN NEW JERSEY. 
Tice State Legislature of New Jersey lias 
passed a law exempting from taxation for 
ten years any establishment engaged ex¬ 
clusively in beet sugar manufacture. Call¬ 
ing attention to this fact, I’rof. Geo. if. 
Cook of tho New Jersey Agricultural Col¬ 
lege says:—"The introduction of this busi¬ 
ness iu this State must begin with raising 
tho beets; and for this purpose trials as to 
the met hods and cost of cultivation need to 
be made. Farmers are entirely safe in rais¬ 
ing the boots, for they make excellent feed 
for stock, being quite equal to carrots, man¬ 
gold wurtzels or turnips for that purpose, 
and from toil to twenty tons an aero can 
easily be raised. On the farm of the State 
Agricultural College, last, year, two kinds 
of sugar beets were raised, tho Silesian, 
which yielded eighteen tons an acre oil good 
ground, and the Nursery, oil poorer ground, 
which yielded nine tons. They worn culti¬ 
vated in rows twenty-eight inches apart, 
and about ten inches apart iu tho rows. 
The planting was in tho latter part of May. 
* * * The benefits to tho farmer are, 1st, 
that the manufacturer will pay him So or SG 
a ton for the beets and return tho pulp, 
which is about one-fifth the weight of the 
beets, or say three tons an acre, and which 
for feeding cattle is worth about one-half as 
much per ton as good hay. 2d. The manu¬ 
facture is carried on in winter and not iu 
summer, and so furnishes winter employ¬ 
ment for the same set of laborers that work 
on the farms in summer. 3d. It supplies 
the stimulus and tho rewards for improved 
tillage, at tho homes of the farmers every¬ 
where.” 
- ♦♦♦ - 
POTATOES WITHOUT BUGS. 
tho Southern Queens the most prolific and 
best keeping potatoes in this county. I 
find my hogs prefer them to any other po¬ 
tato. I think them the best potatoes for 
stock that can be grown here. I tiud them 
sound in the ground now, where they were 
planted last spriug, notwithstanding (lie 
unusually severe cold of January and Feb¬ 
ruary. Tho Southern Queen is not a good 
tabic potato, and I raise it only for stock. 
If you wish to grow large ones, you must 
mulch heavily between the rows with straw, 
or lay mils or brush, so that the vines will 
not take root between the rows; indeed, 
you will find that mulching any potato will 
increase its size and quality." 
Sunflowers as a Field Crop for Oil.— 
Have none of your readers grown sunflow¬ 
ers and manufactured oil from the seed? If 
so, I wish they would givo their experience, 
especially as to tho manner of extracting 
the oil. Not long ago, on a friend's table, 1 
found a delicious salad oil, which I was as¬ 
sured was made from sunflower seed; but 
how it was extracted, what machinery was 
used to crush tho seed and express the oil, I 
could not learn. We know by experience 
that sunflower seed is an excellent food for 
fowls, and although I have never fed it. to 
stock, 1 am satisfied that It may bo utilized 
in that direction. I should be glad for facts 
from men of experience as to the matter 
suggested above: and 1 have no doubt others 
will profit thereby as well as—It. N. Green, 
Lake Co., HI. 
Orchard Grass.— Will you please in¬ 
form me what orchard grass seed is worth 
per bushel, and where it can be obtained ?— 
I*. Brown, Went Liberty , Iowa. 
This is one of many similar inquiries. It 
would seem natural that our subscribers, 
desiring to obtain seeds of any sort, and to 
learn the price thereof, should write to a 
seedsman for information ; but the t bought 
does not seem to have occurred to them. 
We presume there aro seed stores near Mr. 
Brown that can furnish him with the seed, 
as well as those advertising 111 our columns. 
Seed can be obtained of any of the New 
York city seedsmen advertising in our col¬ 
umns at from $3.50 to 84 per bushel. The 
seed is growing scarce, and there is a pros¬ 
pect, of an advance in price. Tho demand 
for it is largo. 
To Prevent Crown Palling Corn. — 
Take, to each peck of corn wet with warm 
watMT <r <Vo tablospoonfnl of gas tar; stir 
until it is well blackened; then roll in plas¬ 
ter to dry. I have tried it for years, and 
never knew it to be disturbed by anything. 
It is also a good way to prepare corn to sow 
near u barn where fowls are apt to scratch 
I it out. They will not eat more than one 
kernel.—w. a. i>. 
E. P. F. Braitder, Redfleld, Mich., gives 
the following mode of planting potatoes, in 
the. Western Itural:—“ Prepare the ground 
as usual—the drier and richer the better. 
When warm, plant your potatoes the usual 
depth, as thick as tho soil will warrant. I 
think one, or, at most, two good eyes in a 
place, best, but if soil is rich, they may be 
thick enough, so that the whole ground may 
fill with tubers, and cover with straw suffi¬ 
cient, to keop down all weeds, say from 
three to five inches, and your potatoes will 
need no more care until they are ready for 
the harvest. Do not plant till the ground 
is warm, as the mulch keeps out heat. 
Cover with earth before mulching, or the 
tubers will bo ill-flavored. The‘Colorado 
beetle,’ or 1 yellow-striped potato bug,’ will 
not toucli them, as its larva are not migra¬ 
tory, and as it cannot penetrate the straw 
to reach the earth, the instinct to preserve 
the race, so strong in all insects, bids it 
shun the straw-covered ground.” 
$)oiitologiinil. 
P0M0L0GICAL GOSSIP. 
In a recent address, Dr. Nichols, of tho 
Journal of Chemistry, alluded to tho “ de¬ 
terioration in uur potato crop during the 
past twenty years,” and made the following 
explanation regarding the causes of this 
falling off: — I have a field of potatoes 
upon my farm which I expect will yield 
300 bushels to the acre, which may be 
regarded as an old-fashioned crop. I know 
that this crop will remove from the soil, iu 
tubers and tops, at least 400 pounds of pot¬ 
ash. I am also certain it will remove 150 
pounds of phosphoric acid. Now these 
amounts are very largo, and serve to show 
that the potato plant is a great consumer 
of the two substances; and also, it shows 
that in order to restore our potato fields to 
their former productive condition, we must 
supply phosphatic compounds and sub- 
FIELD NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Sowing Grans Seed with Buckwheat. 
—A Michigan correspondent asks us if we 
would recommend sowing timothy and 
clover seed with buckwheat. We reply no. 
We have tried it, and never found it, a suc¬ 
cessful practice in any instance, although we 
have read of it being so. If we wanted a 
good meadow or pasture, we should prefer 
to treat the land as we would for buckwheat, 
but sow the clover, timothy, etc., without 
the buckwheat. We should expect enough 
better stand of grass to compensate for all 
we might lose from the absence of a buck¬ 
wheat crop. _ 
Brazilian Southern Queen Potato in 
Mississippi.— A. C. Steide speakes highly 
of this sweet potato in the Rural Carolinian, 
for Jackson Co., Miss. He says:—‘‘I find 
Dr. Hexamer’s Strawberry List.—Dr. 
F. M. Hex a At eh. a careful and extensive 
strawberry grower, near New York City, 
writes the Horticulturist:—“From many 
years' careful observation at our own fruit 
farm as well as from the results of fruit 
growing on soils different, from ours, 1 rec¬ 
ommend for general cultivation the follow¬ 
ing select list of strawberries as best adapt¬ 
ed to the widest extent of territ ory and the 
different systems of cultivation:—On heavy 
soil, Nicauor for early; Wilson and Charles 
Downing for medium or main crop; Tri- 
ompho do Gaud and Jucuuda for late; Na¬ 
poleon III for the latest. Oil light, soil, 
Downer for early; Wilson and Charles 
Downing, main crop; Seth Boy den and 
Green prolific late; and Kentucky for lat¬ 
est. All of these varieties are valuable for 
the market on account of their firmness.” 
Lawyer Apple.—We have received to¬ 
day (May 4) a specimen of this apple from 
Messrs. Park & Goohvkau, Parkville, Mo. 
It is a beautiful apple—large, dark red, and 
of mild flavor. J t, is described as of a “ rich, 
sprightly cranberry flavor, hardy and pro¬ 
ductive.” It is evidently a good keeper; 
but we cannot call the flavor rich nor 
sprightly. But it has si flavor that will 
please mauy—not sufficient, cranberry flavor 
to please us. It is certainly an acquisition 
as a late keeper for the more Southern lati¬ 
tudes. 
The Walter Grape is highly spoken of— 
is said to have been successfully cultivated 
at Oshkosh, Wis., Mr. J. P. Roe of that 
place being inclined to place it at the head 
of the list of grapes. He had better give it 
further trial before he does so. 
EDUCATING HORSES. 
There are some who are natural teachers. 
They are sagacious, good judges of human 
nature, self-controlled, vigilant, quick to 
discover and seize upon the weaker points 
of character and thereby attack the fortress 
of Disposition and carry it by storm, break¬ 
ing down or overwhelming insubordination. 
So with horse-educators. The first thing 
essential In horse education is ail educated, 
well-balanced, thoroughly cool and saga¬ 
cious man, who understands horse-nature, 
as the phrenologist understands human na¬ 
ture, at sight., and who knows just where and 
how to aim in order to hit the most Impres¬ 
sible part of the animal’s,disposit ion. 
Such a man Prof. Macnf.r seems to bo; 
but that he can teach any man to be what 
he is himself we have serious doubts. lie 
can tame vicious horses. So wo have seen 
teachers tamo vicious hoys. Bxt nil men 
aro not horse-turners nor boy-tamers. But 
every one may learn something by seeing 
how u skilled mechanic makes a machine; 
so any man who desires to, may learn some¬ 
thing by seeing how a skilled horse-educa¬ 
tor controls u horse; hence it usually pays 
a man who has to do with horses to see how 
other people manage them. 
Prof. Manner Is, without doubt, most 
skilled in Imrse management—has common 
sense, is a judge of horse nature and has 
nerve, magnetism and all tho qualities 
which go to make up a thorough horseman. 
And judging by his book, which is before 
us, entitled “The blew System of Educating 
Horses, including iustroctions iu Feeding, 
Watering, Stabling, Shoeing, etc..with Prac¬ 
tical Treatment for Diseases,’’ he has knowl¬ 
edge that is valuable to every horseman. 
We can commend his book, and, bo far as 
we can judge, his system of educating horses, 
to the attention of our readers. 
-♦♦♦-- 
NOTES FOR HORSEMEN. 
To Cure a Balky Horse.— When he 
stops and refuses to be coaxed to go, one 
should first; determine by Ids grit, whether 
it can be whipped out of him. If you whip 
him, confine him as close as possible by 
winding tho lines round the hub of the 
wagon. Go at him with a brush or limb. 
Bo thorough, or it is of no use. If that does 
not cure him, drive down a stake, put ou a 
strong halter, cheek him up, and chain his 
wb idiot roc back to the load; take off tho 
other horse and leave him to consider his 
ways without, food or drink. When you 
think he has repented, take the other horse 
back, bitch on; try him; if lie rebels, leave 
him until he will go. In all cases be very 
sure not to overtax his sti'ength with too 
much load, o. f. l. 
Three-Horse Evener.—Here is my plan: 
—Take a white oak or ash scantling, 2 by 4, 
5 feet 3 inches lung; dress off, and taper 
each end to i'A inches on one edge, leaving 
it the full thickness 2 feet from one cud. 
Now bore a hole IK inches from tho end, 
and 8K inches from the straight edge; next 
boro a hole 2(1 inches from the first, and IK 
inches from the last hole; 40 inches from 
the second, which makes it come IK inches 
from tho end—same as first hole; attach a 
clevis and ring from the 20 inch hole to the 
plow, a common double-tree, with two 
' horses at the first, and the last hole for the 
^ third horse. I have used this plan a long 
time, and have found it t.o work well.—J. A. 
D., Ancaster, Ontario, C. W. 
llorse Distemper. — I. F. Day.— The 
best mode to treat horse distemper is to feed 
plenty of bran mashes, and poultice tho 
throat with bran or turnips, and as soon as 
the swelling begins to soften, if it does not 
break, it should be opened with a knife. 
Also smoke the nostrils with old boot leath¬ 
er, in a kettle or tin, one© a day, which 
helps to loosen the discharge from those 
parts. Do not get him wet or exposed to 
cold, and lie will certuinly'come round all 
right. _ 
Sore-Shouldered Mule. — I think tho 
following is better than the one given by 
“T. B. C.,” Meadvillo:—To two quarts of 
white oak bark liquid, add two ounces sul¬ 
phate of zinc; bathe the part affected night 
and morning. 
To Cure a Kicking Colt.—Fasten a cord 
to the end of his tail, pass it between his 
legs and fasten to the lower part of the col¬ 
lar; draw tight, and your colt will not lift 
a foot to kick.—Wai. Bassett, Oakland Co., 
Mich. 
