250 
MOORE’S RURAL PJEW-YOBKER 
cjfield dj-rops. 
BTEAM CULTIVATION IN LOUISIANA. 
Mu. E. Lawrence, Magnolia Plantation, 
Plaquemine, La., lias made the following 
statements of the results of hiB use of 
Steam in the production of sugar cano. It 
will be read with interest:— 
Two hundred and twenty acres of my 
cane crop, one hundred and forty acres of 
which were plant caue*, and eighty acres 
first-year rat toon 9, were, I believe, as thor¬ 
oughly plowed and cultivated by steam as 
could be desired. The plant canes were 
grown upon land which, after yielding a 
crop of corn, was again broken up by the 
steam-plow 20 inches deep; then, during 
the Winter,, laid off in rows fully 8 feet 
apart and 8 inches deep. In the month of 
February the cane was planted und covered 
carefully with a hoe. I avoided carting the 
seed cane for plants upon the land, carry¬ 
ing it In from each head-land by hand. 
The seed was good, and was planted In the 
usuul way by laying down three canes iu 
each row. It came up well, giving a perfect 
stand. In the mouths of April and May, 
when the plant cane was about 18 inches 
high, I subsoilod the orop with my flve- 
tiued steam cultivator 26 inches deep, twice 
between each row, working over about ten 
acres each day. It left the land thoroughly 
loose and pulverized, aud elevated about 6 
inches above the level before aubsoiling. 
This, as the canes began to shade it, was 
clean and free from grass, and thus was 
obviated the necessity of giving them at 
this period of the season any more work, 
which in ordinary cultivation is always 
requisite. The cane continued to grow 
with great rapidity, aud on the 10th of 
June, when it was large enough, aud the 
ground sufficiently settled to bear up the 
mule-teams, I gave It a thorough plowing 
with our two-mule plows, following with 
the hoes, hilling and laying it by. Thus the 
entire crop, with the exoeptiou of this last 
working, was cultivated and made hy 
steam. 
On the 1st of September these canes were 
blown down very flat, from which they only 
partially rose. They cut for the mill, when 
rolled in December aud January, from 7 to 
12 feet in length, and this after being 
frosted so that we had to throw away the 
first two joints. 
The juioe weighed but 6% to 7 degrees 
Beaume; but under the circumstauoes the 
yield was over 3,000 pounds of double-re¬ 
fined sugar to the aoi’e, and had the canes 
stood up until cut for the mill and been as 
ripe as our oanes usually are, I feel satis¬ 
fied they would have produoed over two 
tons to the acx’c, and this upou old, heavy 
Olay laud. 
The eighty acres of first-year rattoons 
grown from the stubbles of the steam- 
plowed cane, planted in a similar manner 
last year, were barred off and well dug in 
the month of March, then subsoiled aud 
cultivated by steam precisely as the plant 
oaues. The yield was over 2,500 pounds of 
sugar to the acre, but this was when I only 
expected to use the steam-plow iu the 
breaking up of the lands. The use of steam 
for deep Bubsoiliug in the cultivation of the 
Canes, I confess, has far exceeded my ex¬ 
pectations, and I am fully convinced that 
an average yield of even muob more will be 
realized, and this too With less than half 
the labor now employed under the old sys¬ 
tem, iu which the average yield is not over 
1,000 pounds of sugar to the acre To this 
may be added the complete preservation of 
our stubble cauea against the. cold and 
Winter rains, so often disastrous to our 
rattoous. 
The advantages of deep plowing and sub- 
soiling by steam over the ordinary cultiva¬ 
tion by horses, and the consequent tramp¬ 
ling and packing of the ground, can hardly 
be overe-timated. It enubles the laud to 
absorb the heavy rains and prepares it for 
the free admission of air aud heat, aud thus 
changes entirely the character of our soils 
—rendering the heavy clay lauds produc¬ 
tive aud easily worked in seasons of 
drought, which we are so often subjected 
to. The crops grown upon deeply-plowed 
lands sustain no injury. This has been 
constantly my experience, in fact the steam- 
plow seems to command the seasons, ena¬ 
bling the soil at all times to retain and 
transmit moisture, upou which fertility 
mainly depends. But I fear the prospect 
at present is not very bright for the exten¬ 
sion of steam cultivation in our State. A 
long war, with the breaking up of the most 
of our largo plantations, th* entire des¬ 
truction of our labor system, followed by 
scarcity, inefficiency and high price of labor 
and this by a succession of bad seasons, to¬ 
gether with enormous taxatiou, has to a 
great extent disheartened our planters and 
paralyzed their energies; aud though they 
have made almost superhuman efforts to 
restore their estates, yet to-day we have to 
witness, lamentable as it is, this ouce great 
and prosperous interest almost in its last 
throes of existence. Many of our finest 
plantations are now abandoned, and offered 
for sale without purchasers at less than half 
the cost of the improvements. 
Deep plowing; less land cultivated, and 
that done much better; the introduction 
of steam plows and the lands plowed by 
contract, (where the proprietors do not 
choose to purchase,) as is now dono with 
eminent success in England and other 
countries, and a check to our excessive tax¬ 
ations would soon restore us. With this 
every suitable effort should be made und 
inducement held out with a view to briug 
to our fertile lauds aud genial climate, so 
rich in promise, the enterprising and intel¬ 
ligent emigrant of every nation, Then, as 
the future surely indicates, will coine a di¬ 
vision of our lands with the division of our 
system of labor. The large and costly 
8ugar-houseB will be employed as central 
factories; capital and labor will blend har¬ 
moniously together, aud, I trust, a new era 
will dawn upon our now depressed and 
struggling people. 
In justice to the emineDt [inventors and 
manufacturers of double engine steam- 
plowing tackle and implements, John Fow¬ 
ler & Co. of Leeds, England, I can only 
say, after three years’ experience with two 
complete sets of their tackle, that the ease 
and facility with which they arc handled, 
their simple and perfect application of 
power, and the completeness iu every way 
in which tkey are worked, entitle them to 
the high appreciation with which they are 
now regarded iu every part of the civilized 
world. And 1 trust the genius of Americau 
inventors, which has been constantly but 
unfortunately directed to the construction 
of a traction-engine, moving like horses 
over the land, with plows attached, which 
must continue to be a failure, will soon be 
convinced that the double-engine system, 
in which two engines upou opposite head¬ 
lands, carrying the winding-drum and al¬ 
ternately paying out by single line of wire 
rope, pull the implement between them, is 
all that can be desired for the most perfect 
system of cultivation. 
Necessity will soon compel us to take a 
“ new departure.” The constant increase 
of emigration and population in the grain- 
growing States of our oouutry will soon de¬ 
mand a better cultivation and increased 
production. In England steam power has 
increased the yield of wheat from 16 bush¬ 
els to 28 bushels to the acre. 
I do not believe the agricultural interest 
of our country can much longer turn a 
deaf ear to this last aud greatest achieve¬ 
ment of steam—it 3 successful application 
to the cultivation of the soil. It has broken 
the yoke, and lifted the burden which., for 
ages, held both man and beast in bond¬ 
age, ameliorating their condition by mak¬ 
ing that which was most onerous, easy and 
attractive; it has elevated labor and digni¬ 
fied the plow. 
..,, — — - 
SHADE FOE THE SOIL. 
A. K. Montrose, Logansport, lad., 
writes the Cincinnati Gazette:—“I am de¬ 
cidedly in favor of the ‘protective sys- 
tem; ’ I do not wish my land to be plowed 
deep and exposed to the frosts of Winter or 
the burning ray-s of a Summer’s sun. Ev¬ 
erywhere iu a fruitful country the earth is 
covered by a coat of vegetation which, hav¬ 
ing reached maturity, falls upou the ground 
and protects it during Winter, It is to be 
noticed that where a mound of earth is 
thrown up before the frosts of Wiuter come, 
aud then torn dowu in the Spring, that soil 
on which the mound rose produces a better 
yield than the soil adjoining. 
“Many farmers are satisfied that fal¬ 
lowing ground is not the best mode of pre¬ 
paring a field for wheat. Fallow ground is 
usually broken up after corn planting, and 
then stirred before sowing—enough stock 
being kept on it during the Summer to 
keep down the weeds and grass. By such a 
process the soil is constantly exposed to a 
hot sun, and nothing pei’mitted to grow 
that could produce manure. 
“ Many farmers sow oats or flax in Spring, 
and gain a crop by doing so. It more than 
pays the cost of raising the crop. One 
plowing und two harrowings are necessary 
fer the Spring plowing of a fallow field, and 
all that is necessary for oats or flax; then 
stirring for wheat iu both cases is the same. 
Any farmer can see from this that the ex¬ 
tra work pays a big profit; the only ques¬ 
tion that remains is, Which process injures 
the ground tbe most? I contend that fal¬ 
lowing does, by presenting tbe above objec¬ 
tions. By raising «'i crop of oats or flax the 
soil is protected; something is returned for 
the extra plowing; the stubble is left for 
manure, and the ground generally Is in a 
better condition for the coming crop.” 
CHEMISTRY OF HONEY. 
A correspondent of the Scientific Amer¬ 
ican says:—The chemical formula for honey 
is, carbon, 12, hydrogen, 14, oxygen, 14: for 
beeswax, C, 24, II, 34, O, 2.—Glucose, or 
grape sugar, is obtained from honey hy 
treating it with alcohol. This sugar is em¬ 
ployed in Europe for ordinary sweetening 
purposes, for confectionery, eto. But the 
abundance of cane sugar in this country 
makes its manufacture unprofitable. It 
has been proposed, and at present prices of 
strained honey (market quotation in New 
York ten cents per pound), I should think 
it might be profitable to manufacture 
honey into confectionery in this country. 
I believe it is used largely for this purpose 
iu Germany. As I am iguorant of the pro¬ 
cess of manufacturing confect ionery, except 
molasses candy, some of your readers may 
enlighten mo upou this branch ot industry. 
Chemlst9 have giveu us the foregoing 
formula for honey, but, when first gnthcred, 
honey partakes more or less of t he essen¬ 
tial properties of the plant from which it is 
gathered. This essence soon evaporates, if 
the honey be obtained from certain plants; 
while from others—buckwheat, for instance 
—tbe odor and taste is retained for a great 
length of time. 
The crystallization of honey is an evi¬ 
dence of its purity; but many persons are 
more fastidious than wise about tbe food 
they eat. Honey iu tbe comb ia generally 
preferred, because of its beautiful appear¬ 
ance, and the impossibility of its bciug 
adulterated. Still wax Is very indigestible, 
and pure, extracted honey is not only 
cheaper, but far more healthful and con¬ 
venient to handle. There is a process for 
converting honey into wax, but owing to 
the large amount of honey required to pro¬ 
duce a small quantity of wax, the manu¬ 
facture is unprofitable. 
.- -- 
THE BEST BEE HIVE. 
At the Bee Keepers’ Convention, held at 
Kalamazoo, during the Michigau State Fair, 
the abov e question was submitted to a com¬ 
mittee, who reported that t he best hive was 
one with the broad chamber not exceeding 
twelve inches, or less than ten inches iu 
depth, and to be of such a form that it con¬ 
tains not less than two thousand, and not 
to exceed two thousand five hundred cubic 
inches of space; and that the surplus honey- 
space above be of the same size, in order to 
use the same sized frames, or small honey 
boxes with frames. That the entrance 
should be small in Winter, allowing of not 
more than two bees to pass each other at a 
time, and the ventilation upward to be reg¬ 
ulated at pleasure, as no strong current of 
air should pass up through the hive, that 
being highly injurious to the bees. There 
is no question that this is the best hive; 
but how much of this is patented is an un¬ 
settled question. 
■ -- 
WORK OF A SWARM OF BEES. 
I have a swarm of bees which, June 16, 
were iu a box hive 12 by 12 inches iu the 
clear. There is a cap ou top nearly full of 
honey. This swarm came out June 16, and 
were hived. Weight of empty hive, 34 lbs. 
The hive and swarm weighed:—July—2d, 
58>£ lbs.; 3d, 59; 4th, CO; 5th, 60%; 6tb, 62; 
7th, 62)*; 8th, 63%; 9th, 67%; 10th, 63%; 
11th, 68; 12th, 69; 13th, 70; 14th, 71; 15th, 
72%; 16th, 73%; 17th, 74; 18th, 73%; 19th, 
72; 20th, 71%; 21st, 71%; 22d, 71)*; 23d, 70; 
26th, 70>;; 27th, 71. August—20th, 72; 24th, 
72 %; 25th, 73; 26th, 73%; 27th, 74; 28th, 
741*; 29th, 75. September—7th, 77; 8th, 
79 ; 20th, 80; 21st, 84; 23d, 87; 28th, 90; 29th, 
91; 30th, 90. J. Jackson. 
4 ♦ » ■ — ■ ■ -■ 
BEE NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Introducing 1 an Italian Queen into a 
Hive.— Mr. Clement of Michigan thus tells 
how he does it:—" I open the hive aud find 
©8T. SS 
the black queen as soon as I can, if I want 
to keep her, otherwise I pinoh her head. 
Then I have the Italian queen ready. Then 
1 smoke the bees and scent them with pep¬ 
permint and introduce the queen upon a 
card of brood comb, and then go about my 
business. I have never lost one queen in a 
hundred by this method.” 
Mel-Extractor.—Can you give any in¬ 
formation lu regard to the machine called 
Mel-Extractor—lor extracting honey from 
the comb —what it costs and where it cau 
be had, and whether it is a success, patent¬ 
ed, aud by- whom?—S. Haworth. 
It is patented by Messrs. Laxgstroth & 
Wagner. We do not know what it costs 
nor where it can be obtained. It is a suc¬ 
cess, and very generally used among pro¬ 
fessional apiarians. 
Phelps’ Bee Hive. — F. J. Sprague, 
Oxford, Ala., asks for the address of the 
patentee of Phelps' Bee Hive. We do not 
know it. Any one who can give it, should 
address Mr. Sprague direct. 
©he jsjioijtsnrait. 
CATCHING SHAD WITH A FLY. 
Thomas Chalmers, Hoiyoke, Mass., 
writes the Turf, Field and Farm as follows: 
I eeud you three flies used for shad (I used 
three ou my cast). Two Of them ara 
dressed with hackle, one without. They 
take the hackle more freely. The most 
deadly Uy I have used is a little lighter col¬ 
ored wing, with black spot through, aud 
green body—bright green from peaoook 
tail, brown hackle. The best way or using 
that I have tried yet is to anchor the boat 
in or about tbe edge of a good current, 
twenty-five or thirty yards above deep 
water, letting the current carry the fly out 
to within two or three yards of deep water. 
It does not matter whether the fly is on the 
surface or one or two inches under, as they 
take freely either way. 
In casting your fly- as in the ordinary way 
of trout-fishing, you are annoyed with 
small fish of one and two years old, for as 
soon as the fly breaks water, every hook is 
full of the small fry. Iu the trailing pro¬ 
cess, you are not troubled enough to spoil 
the sport. 
You want a rod with good spring to re¬ 
cover, aud keep taut line when they jump, 
for a good, lively- shad, when hooked, will 
jump from two to four feet out of water, 
theu make a break of ten or twelve yards 
before you you c.iu check him. if he can¬ 
not go freely, things have got to break. 
They are game, and light harder and much 
longer than either striped or black bass. 
At the commencement of tbeseasou I dress 
No. 7 hook; as tbe season advances I come 
down to No. 4. I find old style Lumreck 
hook best. Last year I used the Kirby and 
others, und lost a great many fit>h with 
hooks breaking off at barb. This year I 
used old Lumreck, and at close of season I 
find four broken hooks. 
- ++*■ - 
NOTES FOR SPORTSMEN. 
Piratical Finkes.—The Fish commis¬ 
sioners of Massachusetts commend the ex¬ 
termination of two species of fish, known 
as^mud and pond pickerel (Esox ornatus 
and rctlculatus) They say that “ to raise 
other fish near them is like raising poultry 
under [a hawk’s nest. They penetrate 
even to the cold trout brooks, aud devour 
the young of every species that comes iu 
their way; so they- utterly- depopulate the 
waters and convert thousands of the finest 
fishes into their own soft, muddy tasting 
flesh. Tf the State would offer a premium 
of 85 a cart load for them it would be money 
well spent.” They also state to its other 
disagreeable qaulities, this fish adds the 
tendency- to multiply females iu the pro¬ 
portion of about 14 females to one male. 
To Tan Skins and. Leave the Fur 
Ou. — Remove tbe legs and other useless 
parts; soak the skin soft; remove the fiesh 
and soak the skin iu warm water for an 
hour; take for each skin, of borax, salt¬ 
peter and glauber saltB, each one-lialf 
ounce; dissolve with soft water sufficient 
to allow it to be spread on tbe flesh side of 
the skin; apply with a brush, double the 
skin together and put in a oool place for 
twenty-four hours.— a. a. a. 
The American Widgeon or Bald Pate, 
is a duck that is a very superior diver, and 
the companion of the canvas-back during 
its stay in the Chesapeake aud Potomac. 
It feeds upou tbe tender root of the valis- 
meria.—R. P., Baltimore, Md. 
_ Z 
