r s 
202 
MOOSE’S RUSAL NEW-YORKER 
SEPT. 28 
cdfap iTonomir. 
THE ADVANTAGES OF IRRIGATION. 
Some of the advantages of irrigation aro 
thus stated in a paper road by Dr. Hopkins, 
before the Carmarthenshire Farmers’ Club: 
“Water alone oontains lu nearly all In¬ 
stances an amount of fertilizing salts so di¬ 
luted that it ia at onco absorbed and assim¬ 
ilated by the pastures. Water Is always im¬ 
pregnated with atmospheric air and a mi- 
to £37,000,000 worth of food per annum to 
the British food-consuming community; 
that the British pay foreigners, annually, 
for food, £47,711,000, and that if what is now 
comparatively non-productive were made 
productive land, only from one-sixth to 
one-third of this sum would go into the 
hands of foreign producers. 
A Scottish Agricultural paper asserts 
that Lord DtJNMORE does not certainly 
overestimate the advantages of steam plow¬ 
ing, and says: 
A six-furrow plow can turn over about 
as much in a day as two dozen horses, and 
nute quantity of carbonic acid. Deprived at two-thirds of the cost. Then the shares 
of air it is not agreeable to drink; it iff even 
known when long continued to prove un¬ 
wholesome. If the dissolved gases arc ex¬ 
pelled by ebullition, river and brook wuter 
usually contain one-tliirtieth in volume of 
air, and one-fiftieth carbonic acid. In 
spring water the amount of the latter is 
sometimes far more considerable. The 
quantity and nature of saliue ingredients 
in drinkable water vary much; in an agri¬ 
cultural point of view, the study of the con¬ 
tained salts would certainly be useful. The 
waters which serve as drink to the cattle of 
a farm introduce to the dung-heap all the 
matters which aro dissolved or held iu sus¬ 
pension. 11, has been found that on an or¬ 
dinary-sized farm, more than 2 cwt. of alka¬ 
line salts get into the dung-heap in this way 
every year. You will thus perceive that ir¬ 
rigation by plain water must be of enor¬ 
mous service, applied to the surface of light 
and dry pastures. 
“Salt you will find an excellent addition 
to irrigated fields. Salt Is not a thing which 
shows itself conspicuously In the production 
of great luxuriance, but rather in giving 
strength to the stem of the wheat, and i 
may say an admirable condiment and health¬ 
ful improver of grass lands. This substance 
can be sown broadcast in any weather; 
about 4 owl. is a good dressing for an acre 
of grass land ; if mixed with 2 cwt. of guano 
for grass or wheat, so much the hotter, or 
mixed fora time with the furrows taken 
out will be still better, to which may be ad¬ 
ded, the cleansing of the ditches. 
“ All this, I admit, involves labor, and la¬ 
bor is now very dear, but the result will 
show it is worth all the money and some¬ 
thing more. Those who have made vegeta¬ 
ble physiology their study know that in ag¬ 
riculture and other forms of vegetable 
propagation it is difficult to get too much 
water upon pervious soils, and does uotro- [ 
main stagnant for a longer time than is re¬ 
quired to separate most of its fertile prop¬ 
erties. I may add that the manures depos¬ 
ited upon the surface by cattle, sheep, aud 
horses during the heavy rains so constantly 
recurring in this oountry, and carried into 
the brooks, then to the rivers, and thence I 
to the sea, become altogether lost to the 
cultivator, but, by proper adaptation and 
care artificial irrigation will secure to him 
his legitimate share of that advantage which 
should exclusively belong to his taking. 
“ Iu conclusion. I may state that it is un¬ 
doubtedly one of the most important duties 
entrusted to man that he should learn to 
control the elements and by bringing science 
and art to bear upon the works of Nature to 
render them subservient to his will iu pro¬ 
moting the general welfare of the human 
race, aud to contribute to its every-day re¬ 
quirements. Thus we see that destructive 
elements like lire are fairly brought into 
subjection and forced to contribute to our 
wants in a thousand dift'oront ways. The 
earth yields its hidden treasures for a simi¬ 
lar purpose, and every description of soil 
which covers the surfaoo has its allotted 
task to perform; whilst air and water, in 
addition to being absolute necessities of ex¬ 
istence, have yielded the force aud power 
with which they are invested to be applied 
in an intinate variety of ways to the wants 
of mankind.” 
- *■■*■■*■ -- 
STEAM PLOWING IN ENGLAND. 
The necessities of the British food-con¬ 
suming population is attracting increased 
attention amoug the British economists. ( 
Whatever affeots British food production < 
affects, iu a greater or less degree, Aineri- i 
can producers; aud it is well, therefore, to i 
keep watch of what is done aud said in the i 
thickly populated countries dependent, in ] 
some degree, upon American products for i 
food. For instance, Lord Dunmobe has , 
been giving attention to this matter of food ] 
production lu England; aud he estimates 
that deep cultivation by steam, the uproot¬ 
ing of hedge-rows which foster rabbits and s 
destructive birds, and the transforming of 1 
table-cloth plots into forty-acre Helds, i 
would assure un addition of from £2i,000,000 r 
u can he made to penetrate t he ground to a 
much greater depth than plowing can be 
accomplished by horses. Then, again, steam 
- being so much speedier than horses, can be 
r taken advantage of over a greater breadth 
f of land in the autumn than horses can be. 
It does its work at the proper time in Sop- 
1 tember. when the land is dry and the sun 
s hut enough to kill the weeds which have 
e been uprooted by the cultivator. The steam 
s plow makes level the surface of the land. 
Ridges and furrows disappear before its op¬ 
eration, and so the path Is made straight 
- and easy for the reaping machine, thus ef- 
9 footing a great saving in theout ting of crops, 
f Another matter of importance in connec- 
tion With the application of steam to the 
J cultivation of the soil which Lord Dun more 
- appears to have overlooked, is the fact that 
- the treading of the horses' feet is done away 
. with. No sodden hoof-prints are left upon 
. the grotUid to the detriment of tin: seeds 
therein deposited. In fact, in every par- 
■ ticular, steam surpasses horse-power in the 
- way of culture, ami the cost of the better 
• Work it does is much smaller. 
Now, one word about the kind of steam 
i culture he recommends. Lord Dukmorb 
i was one# enthusiastically iu favor of steam 
i traction engines as means of propelling 
r plows. He has changed his mind. Ho gives, 
now, the preference to Fowler’s double 
. engine method. Its only objection is its 
great expense; aud he recommends the 
formation of companies who shall own sucli 
machinery, aud hire them out to farmers. 
| This is the only practical way in which 
steam plowing can be rendered practicable 
] in this country. Steam plows cannot be 
owned and run profitably by small farmers. 
There must be companies formed to own 
and run them. These companies may be 
organized among farmers themselves. The 
advantages will be u gain in time, better 
and deeper plowing, a saving in the expense 
of owning and feeding teams, and a more 
systematic and thorough treatment bf lands. 
This will come iu time; but If the necessi¬ 
ties of British farmers have not resulted in 
the employment of steam plows in hus¬ 
bandly, and if such arguments are necessary 
there, wo need not hope that American 
farmers will speedily adopt, except on large 
farms, what our British brethren arc so 
slow to embrace in their agriculture. 
-♦♦♦ 
ECONOMICAL NOTES. 
A Very Good Compost.—A very good 
fertilizing compost is manufactured by 
using the following substances according to 
the directions given. The mixture has 
been called “ Liebig’s great fertilizer,” as 
it is stated that it originated with him. 
This is doubtful, but it is a very judicious 
aud sensible combination nevertheless, easy 
to prepare and cheap. It will prove ser¬ 
viceable for corn, wheat, and the other ce¬ 
real grains, ami also for grapes: 
This amount will do well, applied to one 
or two acres, aud it will cost not far from 
$ 10 : 
1. Dry peat, twenty bushels. 
2. Unleached ashes, three bushels. 
3. Fiiio bone dust, throe bushels. 
4. Calcined plaster, three bushels. 
5. Nitrate of soda, forty pounds. 
G. Sulphate of ammonia, thirty-three 
pounds. 
7. Sulphate of soda, forty pounds. 
Mix numbers one, two and three togeth¬ 
er; then mix numbers live, six seven in 
five buckets of water. When dissolved, 
add the liquid to the first, second and third ' 
article.— Journal of Chemistry. 
Cheap Mode of Irrigation Wanted. ' 
—I would like to know the different modes ^ 
or ways to irrigate laud. 1 have never seen ( 
or heard described a good, cheap way of ] 
irrigation, or in fact any way; and a.i t an¬ 
ticipate going where irrigation will be prac¬ 
ticable at some times of the year, I should 
like to learn through your valuable paper 
the best way to do it. Will not some of i 
your experienced readers respond ?—F. W. t 
Maxson, Qrecne Co., N. Y. y 
-j 
Sugar from Sugar Beets.—A oorre- e 
spondent asks if sugar or sirup cau be made £ 
from sugar beets with such utensils as are 1 
usually found in the farmer’s kitchen? We 1 
reply, No. 1 
WILSON SEWING MACHINE PALACE. 
Last year wc gave the readers of the Ru- 
ral New-Yokkek a view of the extensive 
factory in which the Wilson Sewing Machine 
is made, at Cleveland, Ohio, along with a 
history of the invention and progress of the 
machine itself, in the hands of its enter¬ 
prising proprietor, W. G. Wilson, and his 
chosen associates. Since that notice, the 
advance in the business has compelled Mr. 
Wilson and Ids associates to look for more 
ample quarters oven than their late elegant 
rooms on Seneca street, and, accordingly, 
arrangements were entered into for the con¬ 
struction of a large building on Superior 
street, to be used as sales and show rooms, 
and for the business apartments of tho offi¬ 
cers of the Company; and also a large build¬ 
ing in the rear of this, fronting on Rockwell 
street, as a principal warehouse for the 
storage and Shipment of machines. This 
warehouse occupies a space of sixty-two by 
one hundred feet; three stories and a base¬ 
ment, entirely occupied as a storage and 
shipping house. The principal salesroom, 
in which are the Company’s offices, has a 
south frontage of forty-two feet on Superior 
street, with a depth of one hundred feet 
along Bond street. 
It is the interior of this magnificent room 
to which we now introduce the readers of 
the Rural New-Yorker, as well as the 
sketch (see page 200) can do it, but which can 
Convey only a faint idea of the brilliancy 
and richness of its adornments and furnish¬ 
ings. The visitor enters the front of the 
main room from Superior St. through doors 
which haug between immense panes of plate 
glass, sixteen foot in bight, admitting a 
flood of light across the superb apartment. 
Once through tho door the visitor finds 
himself iu the midst of almost regal mag¬ 
nificence, having more the air of a royal 
drawing room than of a place for business. 
Rich and elegant carpets cover the floors ; 
elaborately wrought eases contain the 
smaller articles belonging to the retail 
branch of the business, with desks for the 
attendants, l,o correspond. Along the left 
side of this room is a magnificently carved 
counter and screen, dividing tho places of 
the Secretary and his clerks from the large 
salesroom. This counter is cut from solid 
walnut, exhibiting exquisite wreaths of 
flowers, panels of plate glass, and with Its 
rich polish is a rare work of art in its line. 
Back of this counter and screen are the 
desks of the Secretary, Cashier, and Clerks, 
all of the same luxurious style. In the main 
room are fourteen elegant chandeliers of 
gilt bronze, eacli bearing twelve burners, 
cased in glass globes, on which are engraved 
the monogram of the Company. The paint¬ 
ing of tho walls and ceiling of this room is a 
finished work of art. The principal figure 
at the north end of the room is a full length 
portrait of W. G. Wilson, President of the 
Company, sitting like a gentleman at his 
ease—a position which Mr. Wilson's active 
and industrious habits allows Idm small 
time to occupy. Jo various panels about 
the walls and ceiling are pictorial devices 
and portraits, suggested by the business to 
which the place is devoted. Along the cor¬ 
nice, in separate panels, appear the por¬ 
traits of the officers and prominent em¬ 
ployees of the Company, done to the life, 
both as to the gentlemen aud ladies who 
daily occupy these magnificent apartments. 
The President’s private office is reached 
through a door iu the north end of the main 
room. This office is a marvel of elegance 
and comfort, with its rich carpet, carved 
furniture, splendid chandelier and hand¬ 
some paintings, making it more like the 
boudoir of a prince than tho brain-engine 
room of the presiding genius of a business 
which reaches its arms into all lands, from 
Ohio to Japan. 
As the city of Cleveland lias long been 
noted for the elegance of its private dwell¬ 
ings, so it lias now a business house as near¬ 
ly like a palace as the cunning work of the 
craftsman can make it — all the result of a 
well managed business in the hands of the 
Wilson Sewing Machine Company. 
or a sausage grinder; aud so simple that 
the housewife will be able to hull out and 
prepare her rice for the pot at any time 
desirable. A re we to have such a machine ? 
There is a fortune awaiting the lucky man 
who gets it np.” 
Cotton Picker.—W. H. Irving, Phila¬ 
delphia, Pa., is reported to have invented 
a cotton picking machine which is said to 
have been successfully tried in tho field. 
It is claimed by the inventor that it will 
pick twelve acres per day with tho help of 
two men, a boy and a pair of mules, and 
put the cotton iu bags ready for the giu- 
housc. This is a “big thing ” if it will do 
all that is claimed. We have been surprised 
that something of the sort has not been in¬ 
vented before. 
©te (Bartlett. 
Rice Huller Wanted.—TheMobile Reg¬ 
ister says: "Strange that some genious 
does not give us a rice huller so cheap and 
so simple that every farmer might own aud 
work one. It certainly could be made, aud 
nothing would find a more ready sale, for 
every ruralist in the lower South could 
grow his own rice, aud would do so if he 
bad any easy means of preparing it for food. 
We want a little iron machine to run by 
hand, and cost as much as a good coffee mill 
WINTERING VEGETABLES. 
It is one thing to raise a good crop of veg¬ 
etables, but quite another to keep them 
safely through Winter. It is, doubtless, 
the fact that more vegetables are injured by 
heat in Winter than by cold, because most 
persons crowd such things together In large 
quantities, and then cover deeply to keep 
out the frost. When placed iu cellars, the 
windows arc closed, and in the more North¬ 
ern States, banked up with, perhaps, fresh 
horse manure from the stable. Of course 
It Is necessary to keep potatoes, turnips, 
beets, and similar roots from freezing; still 
they would be of far better quality if kept 
as cold as possible, and not actually frozen. 
Turnips and beets, in particular, are very 
liable to beat, and become spoiled if a large 
quanlity Is placed together; aud potatoes 
aro often Injured by being stored in large 
bins, instead of being put in barrels or 
spread thinly upon shelves iu a dark cellar. 
When buried in the ground, small heaps, 
say twenty to thirty bushels in each, is best. 
Celery. —Celery that ia not sufficiently 
blanched when cool nighta oomo on, and 
there is danger of frosts, should he banked 
up to tho topmost point of the leaves; then 
cover with straw or boards. When the 
ground begins to freeze, dig up, aud place 
all in a narrow trench, iu some dry and 
convenient place, where it can be protected 
frvm frost and still bo got at when wanted 
for use. Pure sand is better than soil to 
pack in among the roots and stems for Win¬ 
ter preservation. 
Parsnips and Salsify.—As these roots 
are benefited by freezing, or are at least 
not injured by it, they may be dug up and 
placed in a trenoli and only slightly pro¬ 
tected; just sufficient to admit of taking 
out what aro wanted for use during Winter. 
If they are only wanted for uso iu the 
Spring, then they may be allowed to re¬ 
main where grown. 
Onions will withstand far more cold than 
is usually supposed. If packed dry iu tight 
barrels, and all interstices filled with chaff, 
they may be kept in a barn, or where they 
will freeze quite hard, and not be iujured, 
provided the barrels are closed tight and 
not opened until the onions are again 
thawed. Onions stored iu a warm cellar 
aro very likely to sprout in Winter, and 
then decay, emitting anything but an agree¬ 
able odor. 
The too general custom in the country, of 
puttiug all kinds of vegetables in the cellar 
under the dwelling house is not conducive 
to the health of the inmates at least; be¬ 
sides, it is scarcely possible to keep all kinds 
equally well preserved in the same temper¬ 
ature. It is a far better plan to store the 
different kinds separate, or at least place 
them where ventilation cau be given when 
necessary. Potatoes and carrots are about 
tho only roots that can bo jireserved iu a 
cellar which is not well ventilated in Win¬ 
ter; aud then no very largo quantity cau 
be safely placed together. 
Cabbages.—This is one of the quickest 
decaying vegetables, if kept in a warm 
place; and tbe usual praotioe in this vicini¬ 
ty is to set the heads in a furrow, with the 
roots up, and then cover very lightly with 
earth. In such a position they rejpain 
frozen nearly all Winter, and come out iu 
Spring almost as fresh as when gathered in 
Autumn. We cannot say how this plan 
would answer farther North or South; but 
it answers every purpose here, aud New 
York City market is supplied in Winter 
and Spring from the open fields. 
We believe that as a rule furmers fail in 
preserving their vegetables, simply because 
they try to keep too many kinds together, 
and all in far too warm a temperature. 
