^Ht[m (Bqonomg. 
LOSS FROM LIGHT SEEDING. 
While walking over a newly seeded wheat 
stubble the other day we noted many strips 
or patches where the clover had entirely 
missed. As the catch was good on either 
side, it was evident that the strip had been 
unseeded, and. as the natural result, was 
filling with rag weed, barn grass and the 
like. Wherever in the same field clover 
covered the ground like a mat, not a weed 
of any description was visible. Looking 
on a last year's seeding mown this sum¬ 
mer we found the same result—long strips 
of two to ten or more feet wide through the 
field barren of clover or filling up with blue- 
grass or worthless weeds. No matter how 
long the field may remain unplowed these 
strips will never become well seeded, and 
even after p*owing the loss will continue, as 
there is less valuable sod to turn tinder and 
these strips will require more manure to 
make them as productive as adjoining parts 
of the field. The same result in less striking 
form is seen from an even, though deficient, 
seeding on the whole field. The loss from 
poor seeding, either of a whole or part of a 
field, continues with increasing volume for 
all subsequent time. 
The utmost can; should be taken to have 
every square foot of ground well seeded with 
clover. It is far better to overlap the strips 
and give some a double portion than to leave 
any without seeding. When this overlap¬ 
ping gives the clover a thicker and better 
sod It is proof positive that you have used too 
little seed on the whole. Some of the best 
farmers of our acquaintance now sow fully 
one peck of clover seed per acre, and would 
increase the quantity if they could thereby 
secure a better catch. Their clover fields are 
a delight, to any good farmer’s eye; the clover 
grows so rampant that the pestiferous annual 
weeds which infest most fields are crowded 
out. Possibly, with very favorable seasons, 
less seed might suffice, but these cannot be 
depended upon. There is uo loss except of a 
little seed in sowing thickly, while, if the 
season requires it, this thick seeding may be 
worth five to fifteen dollars per acre more 
than a thin seeding. It will not do to de¬ 
pend on plants from all the clover seed sown, 
and some seasons not from half of it, even 
when perfectly good. Some accident, a dry 
week just as clover Is sprouting, may wither 
the shoot before its root has struck down, 
and only those seeds protected by a small 
stone, a leaf or a clod, will escape. It is gen¬ 
erally better, when a good seed sower is con¬ 
venient, to divide the seed into two parts 
and sow half of it early in the spring and th© 
other half two or three weeks later. This 
gives a double chance for success, besides en¬ 
suring the coveriug of all the ground, if done 
with care. By this plan of double seeding a 
good catch is almost a certainty, and where 
a seed sower is used it does not involve much 
extra trouble. 
-- 
SAVE THE YOUNG CLOVER. 
have it, and if not, feed corn meal or bran 
night and morning. It pays better to feed 
on pasture than to have stock grow' un¬ 
thrifty, and better than to eat down the 
tender clover early in the season. After 
October there Is less loss in moderately past¬ 
uring clover so that what is left early can 
still be saved. On no account, however, 
should youug clover be pastui’ed with sheep. 
Even horses bite too close to the roots, and 
and sedges that grow along the border 
of lakes and rivers and is generally some 
distance from the water. The eggs are 
from ten to eighteen, of a bluish white. 
When leaving the nest, the female frequently 
covers the egg3. As soon as hatched, the 
young are led to the water by the mother, 
where they swim and dive with great dex¬ 
terity. 
The Mallard feeds upon aquatic insects and 
THE MALLARD DUCK. 
cows or young cattle are preferable, as they 
cannot bite ro closely and must leave more 
as protection to the roots. 
AMERICAN GAME BIRDS.-XIII. 
THE MALLARD (ANAS BOSCHAS). 
Tnts well-known Duck, common to both 
hemispheres, has long been supposed to be 
the origin of the common domestic duck : 
but the certainty of this is doubted by some 
naturalists, as there is not found among the 
wild Mallard that diversity of marking 
which is to bo seen among the tame birds. 
Though it. cannot be said to be uncommon in 
our waters, it, Is by no means so common as 
the Dusky Duck, which it resembles in hab¬ 
its, or as the Wood Duck, the Blue and the 
Green-winged Teals, and several other kinds. 
It abounds in the Southern rice fields in win¬ 
ker, aud at the West in the fall and spring. 
The Mallard is thus described by Audu¬ 
bon :—“ Bill about the length of the head, 
greenish yellow, high at base, depressed and 
widened toward the end, rounded at top. 
Head of moderate size, oblong, compressed ; 
neck, rather long and slender ; body, full; 
feet, stout, placed a little behind the center, 
orange red. Plumage, dense, 30 ft, elastic; 
of the head aud neck, blended and resplen¬ 
dent, of a deep green, with a ring of white 
about the middle of the neck. Tail, short, 
rounded, of sixteen acute feathers, of which 
the four central ones are recurved. Fore 
part of breast, dark, brownish chestnut; 
fore part of back, light, yellowish brown ; 
rest of back, brownish black ; rump, black, 
with green and purplish blue reflections, as 
plants. The legitimate methods of shooting 
the Mallard differ in no wise from those em¬ 
ployed In the pursuit of other species of 
ducks frequenting inland waters, excepting 
that one must, of course, always take into 
account the difference in habits and those 
resorts most beloved of each kind. For ex¬ 
ample, one need not look for the Mallard in 
fallen tree-tops, as he would for the Wood 
Duck, though Mallard and Wood Duck 
might both spring, startled at the approach 
of his skiff, from the same lllied nook of the 
marsh, where the. wild oats have tempted 
them alike to a feast beloved of all ducks 
which are themselves, in turn, fit to be 
feasted on. Nor ueed he think to see the 
Mallard follow in its flight all the windings 
of the channel of a marshy stream, as is the 
wont of the Blue winged Teal. But if he 
hunts on foot, following the bank, or in a 
boat, following the channel iu its devious 
course among the sedges, rushes, wild oats, 
pickerel weed, ai’row-head, aud all the luxu¬ 
riant growth of the marshes, he must step 
lightly, paddle silently, be always alert, al 
ways cool, always ready. 
In this connection it is well to Bay that it 
is best, if possible, to approach all ducks up 
wind —that is, with the wind blowing from 
them toward you. Not that, as some sup¬ 
pose, the sense of smell is so strongly devel¬ 
oped iu them that they will, through it, be¬ 
come. aware of your approach, but that their 
hearing is most acute, and the slightest Bound 
carried to them by a wind favoring them 
will alarm them. Avoid overcharging and 
the using of too large shot, both common 
mistakes througheut the coun'ry. A gun so 
charged as to recoil painfully expends a 
large portion of its force against the shooter's 
shoulder ; and of the other mistake, an ounce 
of No. 4 or No. 5 shot contains »o mauy more 
The abundant rains which have blessed, 
or otherwise, most portions of the country 
this summer have undoubtedly had one ad¬ 
vantage which will go far toward compen¬ 
sating their injury. They have probably se¬ 
cured a good growth of clover. Fall feed is 
abundant, and if farmers will only be care¬ 
ful, they will find uo necessity for feeding 
down meadows and stubble fields so bare as 
is usually done. But here is the rub ; Not 
one farmer in a thousand knows how to cal¬ 
culate for good pasturage through the year. 
Their estimates of what a field should do are 
based on an expectation of moist, warm, 
growing weather, such as not one season in 
ten wifi give U?. Then, if there comes a dry 
spell, the grass stops growing, but the stock 
does not stop eating. The result is that at 
midsummer the ground is eaten nearly bare. 
If by any accident the farmer finds his past¬ 
ure good during August, he is straightway 
in distress for more stock to feed it down, so 
that not a blade of grass will be lost. This 
is all wrong. The injury to young clover 
especially, from close cropping in the fall, is 
ten times more than the feed “saved” is 
worth, and particularly if there should be 
such a severe winter for clover as the last. 
Timothy is less injured, and other grasses 
less yet, by close feeding ; but clover should 
always besaved. Instead of providing extra 
stock to eat it down, the farmer should se¬ 
cure extra feed to supply his stock. Keep 
the cattle on the old pastures they fed on 
through the summer—on land intended for 
breaking up next spring, if possible. As the 
grass fails, cut and feed corn fodder if you 
industrial Jntplemettis. 
PHILIP’S PATENT SPIRAL CORN 
HUSKER. 
Thebe is no crop more beautiful or luxuri¬ 
ant than corn—none which ought to be a 
greater favorite with good farmers—none 
which farmers do better like In planting, 
hoeing and everything up to the final act of 
all in harvesting. This is slow, tedious aud 
altogether abominable work. Cold fingers 
and chapped hands are its invariable sequel, 
and it is no wonder that poor farmers, and a 
great many good farmers vow, too often with 
undue profanity, that they wifi plant less 
corn in future. Philiv’s Spiral Corn 
Husker, made by the Philip's Spiral Corn 
Husker Company, Hudson, N. Y., of which 
we give an illustration, ia an effective 
aid to the farmer, aud wifi do much to 
redeem this king of American grains from 
its disrepute. By its use the norn crop 
is handled with about us much ease a3 any 
other grain. The lniskiug season may be 
I protracted longer than is possible in harvest¬ 
ing summer grains, and the corn grower 
with one of these machines can take his time 
in securing the crop whenever he finds it 
most convenient. 
This husker does it» work thoroughly, 
husking at the rate of forty to sixty bushels 
per hour cleaner and better than is usually 
done by baud, and saving the husks sepa¬ 
rately, an important item, as husks are one 
of the most valuable of bedding materials. 
The stalks are crushed, and therefore eaten 
readily by stock, which is alone worth the 
cost of running the machine. These buskers 
need to be and are strongly made, and t his 
renders them somewhat expensive ; but 
their non-liability to breakage under their 
work is something wonderful. The opera¬ 
tion of stripping the ears of husk and every 
particle of silk, is very similar to though 
more perfect than ordinary hand work. Ev¬ 
ery ear, large or small, down to the softest 
I and poorest is husked, and the corn sent to 
I the rear while the husks and stalks are car¬ 
ried in front. By the use of elevators both 
I stalks and corn may be carried oil so as not 
to be in the way of operators. Any two 
horse power is sufficient to run the machine. 
The price, without elevators, is SL50, with 
elevators it is $ 175. It is not expected that 
every small fanner will neod one of these 
machines, hut one, at least, should be in ev- 
I ery neighborhood, and the work of our husk¬ 
ing be done as that of threshing now is, by 
parties going through the town and doing 
I the work at so much per bushel. Any 
. farmer who will buy the first in his neigh- 
I borhood, can soon pay for it by hiring it out 
l to neighbors. In large corn growing di*- 
j tricts many farmers will prefer to have one 
1 of these machines of their own, and some 
, may eveu need one for their exclusive use. 
a At all events, it is a subject of congratulation 
that the introduction of this labor-saving 
p machine is to make a revolution in the meth- 
e ods of harvesting corn, and the sooner this 
revoiution Is effected the better it will be for 
the farmers' interest. 
R. H. Ailen & Co., Nos. 189 and 191 Water 
street, N. Y., are general agents for these 
machines in this country and for the foreign 
trade. 
MJLX'.KV" 
PHILIP’S PATENT SPIRAL CORN HUSKER. 
are the recurved tail feathers. Upper sur¬ 
face of wings, grayish brown. The specu¬ 
lum, or beauty spot, on about ten of the 
secondaries, is of a brilliant, changing pur¬ 
ple and green, edged with velvet black and 
white. Breast, sides and abdomen, pale 
gray, minutely undulated with darker ; low¬ 
er tail coverts black. Length, 24 inches. 
The female is somewhat smaller, with upper 
parts of a pale, ye’lowlsh brown, streaked 
and spotted with dusky brown ; lower parts, 
dull olive ; speculum with less green.” 
The nest of the Mallard is in some solitary 
recess of the marshes, amid coarse grass 
pellets than the same measure of a larger 
size, that by using the smaller your chance 
of hitting your mark is largely increased. 
( r A Pennsylvania farmer writes to the 
Bucks County Intelligencer that the Colorado 
beetles attack the tubers as soon as they are 
dug and the vines withered. In this cose 
the potatoes were covered with the beetles, 
and it was found necessary to gather them 
and move them from the field to prevent 
those pestiferous insects from destroying 
them, - 
STATISTICS OF MINING. 
In Great Britain there are 410,000 men 
employed in the coal mines below ground 
and 106,000 engaged above ground. The 
coal mined each year amounts to 128,500,- 
000 tons. On an average 1,000 men arc 
killed every year and 4,000 wounded. In 
the last half century 50,000 men have been 
killed in ilihe mines and some 200,000 were 
wounded. 
In the United States 83,000 tnen are em¬ 
ployed in mining and 50,000,000 tons of coal 
mined yearly. In Pennsylvania the death 
| rate exceeds that of Great Britain. The 
death rate in Ohio was also greater last year 
Ilian that of England, but this year it will 
be less. 
The most dangerous mines in the United 
States are in Schuylkill County, Pennsylva¬ 
nia, one man being killed there fi r every 
35,000 toua mined. One man is killed In En¬ 
gland for every 138,000 tons mine, one in 
Pennsylvania for every 88,000 tons, aud one 
in Ohio for every 133,000 tons. This destruc¬ 
tion of human life ought always to be con¬ 
sidered when making complaints about dear 
fuel. No doubt the prices olten charged for 
coal are too dear, but the excess of charges 
is on the part of those who own the mines, 
and never on that of those who work them. 
