inches of dry soil and frost below it in March 
sow your wheat. Don’t sow when the ground 
Is too wet. It is the rule to sow wheat with the 
expectation of a good crop, until the wild 
Plums blossom. As a rule the earlier wheat is 
sown the better will be the crop. One of our 
dreaded enemies is the rust, aud two of the 
most frequent causes are, 11 rat, sowing so late 
that it does not ripeu before cold nights come 
on ; and secoud, the use of rank manures. 
As I have said before, make your ground atf 
level as possible. As to the manner of sowing, 
whether by hand or machine, each must decide 
for himself, only don’t cross-harrow after the 
seed is sown. Do all your harrowing oneway, 
for cross-harrowing invariably uncovers more 
than it covers up. Three harrowings are 
set. The cut, however, leaves little difficulty 
on this point. When the flap, b, is raised by 
the passing mole, it lift* the rod, F, which ' up¬ 
sets” a small beveled, wooden knuckle or pro¬ 
tuberance at I, ou which the. top, G N, rests. 
the different varieties growing side oy siae 
without protection of any kind, and as it may 
be of interest, to some Rural readers we send 
a short report: 
Herat!ne, Franconia, Brluckle’sOrange, and 
Pride of the Hudson killed to the ground. 
Mammoth Cluster, Gregg, Philadelphia, 
Brandy wine, Reliance. Early Prolific and New 
Rochelle are all badly damaged. Doolittle 
and Henrietta slightly damaged at the tips, 
while Turner, Cuthbert and Caroline are all 
alive even to tbe tips of the very smallest 
canes. This is about the same as last year, 
except that the Gregg aud Brandywine were 
not injured. In fact, this is the first winter 
THE COW PEA IN ALABAMA. 
A few words about the different varieties of 
the Cow Pea. 
The Run and Black yield the most vine and 
leaf, aud are rnuuiug varieties. They will cover 
tbe ground and c >rn, aud are very prolific. The 
seed remains in the grouud all the winter and 
comes up in the spring. 
Whip-poor-will is a bunch pea, very pro¬ 
ductive, a good table pea, yields ample vine 
aud leaf. 
Black Eye and Yellow Eye are produc¬ 
tive iu pods and vine—good table peas. 
Crowder is a large white pea, aud grows 
so compact in pods that they are as square as 
dice; very prolific of vino aud fnut. 
Tnu Lady Pea is n small, yellow eyed pea, 
immensely productive, and full of vine aud 
leaves. None of the above should be planted 
except when the weather is warm. They may, 
as is our custom, be planted between the corn 
at the last plowing—four or five peas in a hill, 
either iu tbe middle of the row or near the 
corn. Before the corn is ripe they wiil cover 
the ground and corn with a dense mass of 
vine, leaf and pods. 
The best way to plant them is in drills three 
feet apart; the peas scattered thinly in the 
drill, say four or five inches apart or much 
thicker. As a fertilizer we have uothiug that 
can compare with Cow-peas. They will grow 
and luxuriate in the poorest soil and com- 
pletelj cover the ground with a dense mass of 
vine aud pods from one to two or three feet 
thick. In order to plow them in, a turning 
plow must be U6ed. with a heavy chain at¬ 
tached to the double-tree or a sharp circular 
coulter. Wheat may then be sown aud will 
produce on the poorest land 10 bushels to the 
acre. We generally give the vines a thick coat 
of lime, before turning over; sometimes we use 
stone lime reduced to powder or slaked by 
strong brine. They form a fertilizer of great 
power for all plants—iu fact, in conjunction 
with humus, the best I have ever used. 
The Cow-pea makes the most delicate and. 
Hntmcst beef, noik and mutton; increases 
THE RUUA1,'S MOLE TRAF —FIG 90. 
This being weighted, in its descent forces the 
prongs r—made of stout wire—through the 
openings iu b into the animal. 
if it grows it can’t do less—we shall have forty 
bushels per acre. I have seen the statement 
that one bushel of wheat per acre would give 
one seed to every three Inches square of sur¬ 
face. [It has been calculated that abuBhel of 
wheat averages 550,390 kernels, and as an 
acre contains 43,500 square feet, if the former 
be divided by the latter, the quotient will give 
12 grains to each square foot, or a little over 
one grain to every 13 square inches instead of 
one grain to every nine square inches as here 
stated.— Eds ] That is thick enough for any 
one. In regard to 
Manuring. 
1 would rather use my manure on some other 
crop in the rotation, with the exception of plas¬ 
ter and salt. When wheat fails, generally it 
is not because, the laud is poor but because tbe 
plant food in it is not sufficiently available for 
tbe crop. A neighbor had a crop of wheat last 
year which looked fine until heading out time, 
but which yielded only four bushels of stuff 
(uot wheat) per acre. In my opinion an appli¬ 
cation of plaster would have giveu him a fair 
crop. Oue of the best farmers in the State 
raised the average of Mb farm trom seven 
bushels iu 18615 to 33 bushels in 1877. This was 
on a crop of about oue hundred acres annu¬ 
ally. He attributes his success to plaster aud 
clover. His best results are ou clover sod, 
sowing, at the time of sowing wheat, clover 
and about 100 pounds of plaster per acre. One 
year his crop, put in in that way, was 27 bush¬ 
els per acre. Ou the same grouud a part which 
was plastered iu June yielded 15 bushels per 
acre. The weight of the former was 57 pounds 
to the bushel, aud of the latter 54 pounds. His 
rotation is, a clover sod, plowed after the 
second crop is cut; wheat with clover aud 
plaster sowu with it; two crops of clover, oue 
SPRING WHEAT 
A. M. VAN AOKEN 
Selecting Seed. 
The seed ought really to be selected in the 
fall. The best way I know of is to take the 
wheat from tbe best part of the field and whip 
the sheaves over a barrel getting out tbe 
ripest graius. The sheaves may then be put 
up with the rest and thrashed with them. This 
is *• puttering" work and will uot likely bo at¬ 
tended to iu the busy harvest seasou. 
The next best way is to leave a load of the 
very best until the last; put it on the top so as 
to be within easy reach, atid thrash with a flail 
before the general thrashing by the machine. 
That thrashed by the machine is often split 
and broken. If you have uot hitherto selected 
your seed 1 would advise that, some day when 
the wind draws strongly through the barn, the 
doors should be opened ou the ground floor 
and with a common scoop throw the wheat in 
a semi circle against the wind. Select that on 
the outside of your circle as your seed wheat. 
Brining Seed Wheat. 
I have always been content to sow my wheat 
dry ; but. as it is often recommended to brine 
wheat, I will give the formula of a successful 
farmer in an adjoining county: "Procure 
two barrels, two com baskets, a wash-tub, a 
large dipper, and a half bushel measure; also 
plenty of salt and an ounce of blue vitriol to 
each bushel. Place the tub iu a convenient 
place with a barrel ou either side of it. Make 
A COUPLE OF MOLE TRAPS 
We here present to the notice of our readers 
a couple of mole traps, oue of which, fig. 90, 
was described and pictured in a larger cut in the 
Rural of July 28,1877, and tbe other of which, 
fig. 91, has been just patented by L. M. Oraun, 
of Burgoon, Ohio. Although they differ con¬ 
siderably in shape, the principles on which 
both act seem to us identical. The follow¬ 
ing is a condensed account of the modus oper¬ 
ands of the Rural’s trap, as published in the 
above-mentioned issue:— 
The spikes (A), three-quarters of an inch 
wide and tapering somewhat at the end, are 
pressed into the ground beside the mole-track 
as far as possible, bo that the trigger (B) 
whieh is not yet attached to the lever (0). rests 
upon the Burface of the mole-track, the prong- 
head (D) meantime beiug held in its present 
position by the ring at the top of the upright 
square bar (F). Now let it slip from the hand. 
The force of tbe spring (E) will drive the 
prongs (D) into the ground, perhaps half way. 
Press them entirely down with the foot, aud 
raise and lower them several times so as to 
give firmness to the earth and a free passage to 
the prongs. Then raise up the prong-head to 
its present position and place the lever (C) in 
one of the notches of the trigger (B) according 
as the other end of the latter is more or less 
depressed. Now the mole cannot again pass 
through this track without so pressing upon 
the earth as to move the trigger (at B), which 
releases the lover (0) and permits the spring 
(E) to act, sending the prong-head into its 
place with great force, securely pinning (gen¬ 
erally killing) the mole. 
The following are the directions for setting 
the other trap: 
Find a place where the mole passes fre¬ 
quently ; press down a few inches of his furrow 
with the foot—uot too closely, but about even 
with the surface of the ground. Place the 
trap ou one side of the furrow, and at right 
angles to it, so that the row of spears shall 
come directly over the mole’s path. Place a 
butter. The flavor of beet, porK ana niuaun, 
imparted by the pea, is entirely different from 
that of the meat of stock fed on any other 
food. The hulls or the peas, after thrashing, 
are greedily oatou by all stock- This pea is the 
most easily grown, most prolific, and best stock 
food. Oue bushel to the acre for broadcasting 
as a fertilizer is the right quantity. They sell 
here now at $1 per bushel. They are so plen¬ 
tiful in our land that even our people do uot 
estimate them properly. As the produce Is so 
WHAT OTHERS SAY 
Directions for Applying ooncentrated 
Fertilizers.— [Just at this seasou more than 
any other, our readers who desire to experi¬ 
ment with concentrated fertilizers will find 
the following directions, as give^by Profes¬ 
sor G. C. Caldwell of value. TheTh were read 
before the recent meeting of the Western 
New York Hort. Society.— Eds.] 
First.—Have unmanured plots of the same 
kind as those manured, and bearing tbe same 
kind of crop, so as to have »ome means of es¬ 
timating the effect of the fertilizer experi¬ 
mented with. 
Second.—Do not experiment with complex 
mixtures containing all of the three impor¬ 
tant constituents of manures—nitrogen, phos¬ 
phoric acid and potash —unless other experi¬ 
ments are also tried with manures containing 
each one of these alone or containing two of 
them together , for possibly any one of them 
alone may make as much of u crop as all three 
together ; aud if the experiment is not so ar¬ 
ranged as to test this possibility, we have no 
assurance that all three are required for a 
given good result. 
Third—For phosphoric acid use a plain 
L, M. CIUUN’S MOLE TRAIL 
four to six pailfuls of strong brine in each for hay 
barrel, with two ounces of pulverized vitriol to be, and 
the pailful. Fill the tub with brine, leaving for win 
room for half a bushel of wheat. Commence on a cl< 
washing by pouring one-half bushel of wheat so invi 
into the tub uear the side, in a small Btrearn, wheat 1 
so as to prevent the wheat carrying the lighter 
stuff to the bottom. Stir and Bkiru till it is Sow i 
