That is to say two pieces are placed 12 inches 
apart. 
SO pieces weighing- 1 lb. 12 oz. in drill 33 feet long. 
BO « R X “ g “ '• 
4Q <• «« 1 41 6 M “ 
The following with three pieces placed close 
together (each and all single eyes): 
90 pieces weighing 2 lbs. 10 oz, in drill33 feet long. 
75 “ “ S “ 8 '• 
48 “ “ 1 •• 6 *• « “ 
64 “ (four pieces nut close together) weighing 
2 lbs. 9 oz. in drill 33 feet long. 
80 pieees (five pieces) weighing 2 fts. 4 oz. in drill S3 
feet long. 
We have also planted 35 varieties of unnamed 
seedling potatoes, each of which is claimed by 
its originator to excel all others in some or all 
respects. As in the preceding tests, they were 
cut to single eyes, the weight of each kind 
carefully taken and noted. 
A friend and a well known celebrity in agri¬ 
cultural practice and journalism made the 
statement a few days ago that potato skins, ent 
to single eyes, would yield as well and as large 
tubers as if ihe flesh were added. “Have you 
never found" said he “ the seed potato at har¬ 
vest as sound as a dollar with just as many 
potatoes in the hill as where the seed piece or 
potato has rotted and disappeared ?” For ob¬ 
vious reasons, as it appears to the writer, this 
is a mistaken theory. Nevertheless, we have 
planted a row of potato-skins cut to singleeyes 
and shall give them the same care as the others, 
and report results to onr readers in due time. 
We are fully aware that the eyes will grow, 
having seen vines from snch eyes a hundred 
times growing out of rubbish fieaps and the 
like. But we anticipate from those skins, cut 
to single eyes, “small potatoes and few in a 
hill." 
Alas for the bright expectations of two weeks 
ago! Silver Cbaff and Shumaker wheats, 
growing upon 6andy loam and gravelly sub¬ 
soil, are burning up, and others of our wheat 
plots are suffering. The grass is burnt to 
pieces and the clover droops its diminished 
heads. 
-- * ♦- 
Holidays for Hired Meu. 
“ Boys, we have had two months of hard 
work, digging trees, packing and planting. I 
am about tired out, and am going to take a va¬ 
cation. You may take oue also—Saturday 
you may have to yourselves—go fishing or 
Wherever yon please.” I did not grant the 
above expecting to make unney by it, yet I 
verily believe I shall. It is economy for me to 
rest—I can accomplish more during the year 
by so doing. Why, then, is it not good economy 
to give the laborers a rest also ? A day’s rec¬ 
reation works wonders—who has not realized 
the fact? But, aside from this, the boys will 
fee] that they have in a measure succeeded in 
satisfying me with their efforts. This thought 
relieves the long, weary working hours, I can 
assure you. Our laborers have procured musi¬ 
cal instruments, and practice regularly at noon 
under the shady trees. I have heard more 
artistic strains, but none that gave me greater 
satisfaction. Don't cut short the noon rest of 
your laborers. The system needs rest after 
taking food. I am asked, “ Would it not be 
better economy for you to let your men board 
themselves—they would live on cheaper food 
than you give them ? “No, they would not 
provide food nutritious enough to enable them 
to do the work they now do." The labor ques¬ 
tion is important; let us consider the subject 
thoughtfully. Agricultural papers have a great 
deal to say about the welfare of all farm crops; 
but very little aboat the welfare of those by 
whose labor they are raised. 
Chas. A. Green. 
cfarm toiwmp. 
THRASHIF G AND THRASHING MA¬ 
CHINES. 
PROFESSOR I. P. ROBERTS. 
In the days of our fathers the horse had 
largely superseded the flail of our grandfathers 
in thrashing grain. As soon as barns of suffi¬ 
cient size were erected, the change from hu¬ 
man muscle to horse muscle appeared both 
wise and economical, for it obviated much hard 
labor and was far more expeditious. At the 
same time it furnished a fine opportunity to 
give the colts the first lesson of their educa¬ 
tion ; coupled to an old horse and given the 
outside of the course, their steady tramp 
through straw knee-deep. 6oon curbed their 
youthful ardor. The next advance was the 
chaffer that thrashed the grain, but left the 
separation of grain and Btraw to hand labor— 
and dusty, hard work it was. Then came the 
Bbaker attachmeut which separated the straw. 
This was a great improvement over the single 
Chaffer. Then came the full-fledged thrasher 
and cleaner, followed soon by the long straw 
carrier or “stacker" attachment, all driven by 
horses, and las'ly the horses have been 
supersede d by the portable engine. 
In ail this, how much have we gained? In 
rapidity we have gained much, and in ease the 
grain is taken directly from the shock to the j 
machine, we have gained aomelhing in econo- 
mizing, handling, and storage-room, and in 
avoiding waste. But in this climate but few, 
comparatively, can avail themselves of the 
cheaper method of thrashing direct from the 
shock, and even by this cheaper method the 
expense, when the crop is small, is not so very 
much less than it would be to flail it, or tramp 
it out with horses. 
The land within a radius of six miles from 
Ithaca is not first-class for wheat, and an 
average day’s work for a steam thrasher does 
not exceed 400 bushels of merchantable grain, 
under favorable circumstances, the account 
would 6tand about as follows :— 
Thrashing 400 bushels of whent at .05.$20.00 
T earn and man to remove water-box, etc., to next 
_ , Job. i.oo 
Nine meals for thrashers, at 25c. !.s!25 
Seven workmen at $1.25 pey .lay. 8.75 
Board for four horses (thraBhors). 1.00 
Total.. 
Or very nearly 8£ cents per bushel. Under 
unfavorable circumstances, and wheu the 
wheat was not very good, it has frequently 
stood with me as follows :— 
Thrasbinsr »X) bushels of wheat at .05 ets.$15.00 
Team and man tod raw water-box., etc.,. l.uo 
Coal. 1.50 
TwelvemealB. (thrashers cameniirht before).... 3.00 
Board of four horses, (thrashers,)... 1 .jo 
Eight hands, (straw put in straw barn) at $1.25... lo.to 
Total. 831.90 
This iB over 10 cents per bushel, and several 
men last winter offered to be ard themselves, 
thrash with a flail and ruu once through the 
fan for 10 cents per bushel, and if I am 
correctly informed, several small crops were 
thrashed for that price. It appears to me we 
have gained much in rapidity, but little in 
economy. But, as a rule, there is no haste to 
get the wheat to market, for, according to the 
table given by Mr. E. M. Gilearn, the average 
price of wheat for May, during the last ten 
years, has been $1.49 2-5; for September $1.29$. 
Some loss occurs in holding till May, but not 
nearly enough to balance the gain of 20 cents 
per bushels. 
Having erected a new barn last summer 
and wanting a small engine and boiler to cut 
feed for the dairy, and being thoroughly dis¬ 
gusted with thrashers, a new departure was 
inaugurated. A two-horse thrasher aud clean¬ 
er ($160) was placed in the grain mow on the 
third floor, and the grain 6tored immediately 
around three sides and over it. The machine 
was inclosed about one foot from the sides 
and two feet from the top, with a tight box, 
the Bides of which were composed of movable 
doors, a small hole being left in the end for 
the straw and carrier. The top of this box 
over the machiue is pierced with a tight, 
square wooden tube 10x12 inches, which ex¬ 
tends with tnrus to the manure cellar, where 
is placed a small suction fan—cost $35. On 
the second floor, just beneath the thrasher, on 
a frame four feet high, stands a common fan¬ 
ning mill: and the wheat from the thrasher 
passes directly into it. The machine is cap¬ 
able of thrashing a bushel in three minutes, 
and averages a bushel in four minutes, at 
the same time that the suction fan and fanning 
mill are in operation. The hands necessary 
to run it are, a feeder, a grain-pitcher, a straw- 
pitcher and an engineer—four in all. The 
suction fan removes nearly all dust and de¬ 
posits it in a box Ailed with water. 
The fan cleans the grain ready for market. 
The cost to ns (tbe workmen are hired by the 
year) is little more than the wear of machinery 
and value of coal, as everything is under 
shelter, and stormy days alone are used for 
thrashing, and we haven’t half grain enough to 
occupy them. So far it works like a charm— 
no thrashers to pay ; no dust; no hurry ; no 
worry ; no waste. 
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 
-- 
POISONED WELLS. 
Some time ago we took occasion to refer 
particularly in these columns to a note from a 
correspondent in reference to the probable 
fouling of a well from a cesspool. We seized 
the opportunity toexplain fully, with a diagram 
illustrative thereof, the theory of the opera¬ 
tion of well poisoning in this way. The sub¬ 
ject is of such surpassing importance that we 
return to it to notice an instance strikingly 
corroborative of onr remarks and caution then 
made, and which comes to us in the interesting 
report of the Rutger’s Scientific School, which 
is, in fact, the New Jersey State Agricultural 
College. The subject is taken up in a paper 
on “Tbe well waters of New Brunswick" by 
0. W. Cutler, a student of the chemical course. 
Incidentally it may be remarked here that one 
of the excellent methods of thiB excellent 
school, of which bat little is heard, although 
much is done in it, is to exercise the students 
in original analytical investigations, which they 
are expected to carry out without help from 
the professors, gradually passing from single to 
elaborate subjects. It was in this way that this 
young student undertook to examine the wells 
of New Brunswick with some remarkable re¬ 
sults. 
Twenty-four wells were examined. Of these 
eight only were good ; two were passable, but 
fourteen—or more than oue-half—were bad to 
very bad. When well water is found to con¬ 
tain more than 40 grains per gallon of solid 
matter it is to be suspected. When the solid 
matter in solution largely surpasses this quan¬ 
tity the pollution becomes dangerous- And 
here is a well in the city of New Brunswick 
which contains 202 grains, or nearly half an 
ounce of solid matter per gallon in solution, 
with a considerable proportion of albuminoid 
ammonia. Another of the contaminated wells 
contained four-tenths, or nearly half a pound 
of albuminoid amtnouia in the million parts of 
water, although the solid matter was but 38$ 
grains per gallon ; this case shows clearly 
the foul origin of the contamination. A well 
was examined into which the matter from a 
cesspool 60 feet distant, had percolated through 
a bed of sandstone. Another source of mis¬ 
chief was found in the eutrauce of various 
kinds of vermin into the well, aud their death 
and decay in the water. Some old wells are 
Bpoken of in the report which bad manyinches 
of sediment at the bottom, chiefly consisting of 
the remains of toads, snakes aud other vermin. 
Here ia a monstrous evil existing under the 
shadow of many a fair homestead—a lurking 
danger, like the genius of evil, hovering in the 
dark over many a household, all unsuspecting 
of it. It is not only here and there ; it is on 
every hand ; the farm, from its want of d rain- 
age, being in more dauger than the city house, 
and the better class of rural dwellings being 
worse placed than the farms, because of Ihe 
modern improvements which gather the refuse 
of the household in a concentrated form under 
ground, but out of sight, and of the largely in¬ 
creased wastes from a more refined household. 
It may be that we suffer from our excessive re¬ 
finement in thus hiding away our filth; that 
the only safe disposal of house wastes is in the 
shape of manure, and that to be safe the 
wastes of a house should be kept in sight and 
used as are those of the stable—to fertilize the 
soil. If we could but come to that in any prac¬ 
ticable manner, we might add millions of dol¬ 
lars to our aggregate yearly income, and se¬ 
cure pure water, and with an undoubted free¬ 
dom from much disease of mysterious (when 
unsuspected) origin. 
PURIFYING WATER. 
The great objection to most water filters is 
that, like the brick dividing wall in a cistern, 
they are made a solid fixture and cannot be 
easily removed and replaced without consid¬ 
erable trouble and expense wheu they become 
foul, which is invariably the case in a longer 
or shorter time. One of the best aud cheap¬ 
est we have yet heard of we fiad described by 
an English gentleman in the Metal Worker, 
which we copy below for the benefit of all 
wbo desire a pure, healthy beverage. 
Take any suitable vessel with a perforated 
false bottom : cover it with a layer of animal 
charcoal; on the top of that spread a layer of 
iron filings and borings, the finer the better. 
These are to be mixed with charcoal dust; and 
on the top of them is placed a layer of fine, 
clean silieious sand. This will give you a 
perfect filter. The foul water, however, 
should be allowed to trickle very slowly 
through the filter, if one would produce a fine 
sample of drinking water. The iron filings, 
before being placed in the filter, require spe¬ 
cial treatment. They must be well washed 
in a hot solution of soda or potash, in order 
to remove the oil or other impurities. Then 
they must be thoroughly rinsed in clean water, 
in order to take out every trace of soda. The 
filings should be mixed with an equal meas¬ 
ure of fine charcoal. The deeper the bed of 
iron, the quicker they will act. Of course, if 
the water is very foul, an unusual depth of 
filings and a very slow rate of filtration should 
be employed. 
The above is a simple, cheap and very 
efficient filter, superior to any other that I 
know of, and has the advantage of being free 
to every one who chooses to make it. 
The addition of permanganates will not de¬ 
stroy bacteria, or microscopic organisms, but 
the addition of hydrochloric acid will. If it 
is desired to purify water containing bacteria, 
hydiochloric acid must be added, until the 
water is slightly acid, to test paper. This will 
destroy the whole of the anitnalcu'ne; then suf¬ 
ficient lime water must be added to neutralize 
the acid. The lime is precipitated by means 
of the oxalate of ammonia. The filial treat¬ 
ment is to filter through the iron filter which 
I have just described. The foulest ditch 
water, treated as above, is rendered quite 
pn re and fit for drinking. 
The above is exceedingly interesting to our 
readers, some of whom have asked where to 
obtaiu iron sponge for purposes of filtration. 
The filter described above does away with ihe 
use of the iron sponge entirely, while retaining 
all the advantages of that material. We be¬ 
lieve at the present time there is no manufac¬ 
turer of iron sponge in the United States, nor 
have we heard of any place where it can be ob¬ 
tained. 
Iron filings and iron turnings, or borings, 
as they are called, can be obtained in almost 
any town in the country—certainly in any 
town where there is a foundry or machine 
SOILING CROPS. 
To have enough and to spare is the secret 
of contentment. No farmer or dairyman can 
have enough for his stock if he depends on 
pasturing; if he should have, he certainly 
cannot have enough for his pocket, because 
his farm is not slocked heavily enough for 
profit, and never can be, with pasture only for 
summer feed. Pasturing may be very well 
Where land ia cheap aud products bring but a 
small price, and where a subsistence is easily 
procured or the wants are tew. But where 
land is worth more than $30 or $40 per acre 
pasturing 18 unprofitable, for the feeding of a 
cow costs too much. Pasturing is not consist¬ 
ent with high farming, which is ouly another 
name for good farming, because it is wasteful 
and uneconomical aud does not develop the 
rescources of the farm. If the farm is to be 
fully worked and every oue of its resources 
fully developed, the pasturing of a field should 
be but a part of the process for getting it into 
the best condition for producing auother course 
of crops, unless, indeed, it be a field which is 
fitted for no other purpose, and then it can bo 
better utilized than by being constantly 
trampled, fouled and gnawed by cattle. 
For profitable farming, pasturing should 
always be combined with Boiling crops; but 
when, as is now occurring, pastures and hay 
meadows alike are dry aud burned up under 
unseasonable and torrid suns, and yield no fod¬ 
der, soiling crops are indispensable for Ihe sal¬ 
vation of the stock. Soiling crops may be 
made au occasional help in this way, but 
they are the most valuable when used sys¬ 
tematically and made a part of the rou¬ 
tine of tbe farm. Sometimes a field needs 
summer-fallowing; it is clothed with weeds ; 
it is worn out; it can no longer be profit¬ 
ably worked. Such a field may be used for 
soiling crops and may be brought out of its 
poverty-stricken and wretched condition, like 
the maniacs of Scripture who were brought 
out from among the tombs “clothed and in 
their right minds.’' It is in turning a piece of 
useless land to such a good purpose that one 
of the principal benefits of growing soiling 
crops consists ; another is the producing from 
oue acre of ground as much feed as could be 
procured from 10 acres of pasture; and an¬ 
other, which is specially pertinent just now, is 
the substitution of green fodder crops for 
grass aud hay, which have partially or wholly 
failed in dry seasons. 
The best soiling crops are those which grow 
rapidly ; thrive in hot and even dry weather, 
being deep-rooted and naturally adapted to 
tropical or subtropical climates; and wh$:h 
yield a heavy burden of nutritious fodder. 
Corn is doubtless the most available of all the 
green fodder crops ; but it Is not early enough, 
nor does it possess all the desirable qualities, 
to make it the ouly sufficient oue for our use 
in regular soiling. It Is, however, the best 
single crop for partial soiling, and if but one 
can be grown; and it may easily be planted 
consecutively so as to give a succession of 
