1883.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
7 
would evidently be of great service in preparing 
for ruta-bagas, carrots, and other farm root-crops. 
In that case, the parts may be doubled in size, and 
•two horses used. One point about these home¬ 
made implements is, they should be made ready 
beforehand. The farmer may be convinced that it 
will pay in the end, but he will rarely stop half a 
day in the busy season to make a planker, or 
-other affair. Hence we call such matters to mind 
in a time of leisure, that they may be provided. 
An Easy Milking Stool. 
Mr. “ A.W. S.,” Steuben County, N. Y., writes us: 
I always pity people when I see them perched on a 
milking stool with one leg. They appear as if 
they were trying to make themselves as uncom¬ 
fortable as possible. One 
can rest on a comforta¬ 
ble milking stool after 
being on foot all day. I 
send you an illustration 
of one easily and quickly 
t made. Take a piece of plank 19 inches long and saw 
it as marked out in fig. 1. A piece of board 9 inches 
■square is nailed on top (a) for the seat. A light 
board is nailed on the arm (6) wide enough for the 
pail. A piece of scantling, 14 inches long and 4 
inches wide, fitted in a notch (c) in the bottom of 
Fig. 2. 
•(she plank keeps the stool upright. A leg in the 
-arm, and a strip of leather nailed on the left hand 
-edge of the seat to carry it by completes the stool. 
The leather strip is much better than an oblong 
hole in the seat, as the hand soils the seat and 
jthe pants. 
An Independent Aid Association. 
Each reader of the American Agriculturist is a 
-member of a great Mutual Aid Association, to 
•which he or she may contribute some hint or 
■suggestion of much value to many others. There 
are thousands of labor-saving contrivances, home¬ 
made devices, the product of individual skill, that 
when brought to notice are of great general 
service. We, therefore, ask our many readers in 
all parts of the world, to send us practical items 
-on “the farm, garden and household,” for your 
paper. In this way each one may help to make 
(the old reliable farm and home journal still more 
valuable to the great family of readers. Please 
give a pencil sketch—a rough one will do, when¬ 
ever an engraving will add to the clearness and 
force of the article. Pictures bring things to the 
eye and understanding far better than words alone 
can do. Good practical hints, suggestions, per¬ 
sonal experience, etc., on every day topics of the 
farm, garden, and household, are desired, and no 
one should hesitate sending anything of value not 
generally known, from any lack of language or ex¬ 
perience in writing. The editors will put the 
matter into shape. Short, concise and pointed 
articles, not to e) -.e-1 600 words, are most ac¬ 
ceptable. It is o'u' aim to treat briefly and tersely 
a large number of agricultural interests in each 
issue. Contributions will be paid for so soon as 
published. 
Are Fertilizers Patentable.— “0. B.,” East 
Hebron, Me., writes us: “Can a man obtain a 
patent upon a compost, or phosphate compound. 
Could more than the trade mark be patented, or 
could he obtain a patent that would debar any one 
else from making a compost containing the same 
ingredients ? ”—Ans. Such a compound is patenta- 
fble if new and useful. It would fall under the term, 
'“composition of matter,” as used in our statute 
of patents, which includes medicines and composi¬ 
tions used in the ,rts, etc. The patent covers 
either the article itself, or the process of com¬ 
pounding it, or both. If the thing produced, and 
the method of producing it, are both new, the pat¬ 
ent will cover both as the subjects of invention. 
Novelty, utility, and originality of invention are 
the tests to apply. It is not necessary that the 
materials of which the compost is made be new, 
but only that the combination, or the method of 
making it, was before unknown. The trade-mark, 
label, or name applied to the article cannot be pat¬ 
ented, the United States Statute for the protection 
of trade-marks having been held unconstitutional 
by the Supreme Court, but may be copyrighted un¬ 
der the copyright law, which would afford some 
protection. H. A. H. 
The Bread Sponge. 
Brisk house-keepers like to get their bread baked 
early in the day. To accomplish this they set the 
sponge over night. In cold weather there is dan¬ 
ger that it will not rise properly during the night, 
especially if dry yeast is used. There is no trouble 
about it if you can keep the sponge warm enough. 
A pail or jar is more easily wrapped up than a 
flouring pan of any kind. I use a five quart pail in 
which to start the half-dozen rather small loaves 
of my family baking. Some suppose that care 
must be taken not to have the water too warm 
with which the flour is mixed, lest the bread be 
coarse in texture. I think that matter depends 
entirely upon the kneading, and that the warmth 
of the water has nothing to do with it. You must, 
however, be careful that the mixture is not 60 hot 
as to scald the yeast when this is added, as that 
makes it of no more use than so much dry meal. 
I usually pour a little boiling water into the middle 
of the flour, scalding a portion of it purposely. 
This makes the bread more moist and sweet than 
it would be if mixed only with simple warm water. 
I continue the mixing with luke-warm water, add¬ 
ing the yeast when the batter is of such tempera¬ 
ture that it will not scald the yeast, but rather 
warm to my finger. Stir in the yeast thoroughly, 
that the whole may be equally leavened. Now 
cover the pail and wrap it up warm (in cool weather,) 
and leave it until morning, when you will probably 
find the mass light enough to knead. 
If for any reason the sponge does not keep warm 
enough, and has not risen during the night, it must 
be brought immediately to the proper temperature. 
The best way to accomplish this is to have a kettle 
of very hot water, and set the pail into it. Let the 
kettle stand where it will keep hot while you stir 
the sponge rapidly, until it is all brought to the 
proper heat. Then set it in a warm place, and it 
will rise as though it had just been started. The 
sponge is more sure to rise well in the night, if 
soft yeast is used, and this you can make each time 
from your cake of dry yeast. About four o’clock 
in the afternoon put a cake of yeast at soak in a pint 
of warm water. In tenor fifteen minutes stir in 
flour enough to make a batter, and let this rise in a 
warm place until near bed-time, when you wish to 
set the sponge. Then stir it into the batter. The 
sponge will rise in less time when so treated. F.E.R. 
A Gold Vein on Most Farms. 
Very many communities know the excitement 
produced by the rumor, even, that somebody in 
the vicinity has found indications of the presence 
of gold in the soil. Untold millions have been ex¬ 
pended in searching for the precious metal in lo¬ 
calities where a bit of useless iron pyrites (sulphide 
of iron) has been mistaken for gold, which' it re¬ 
sembles in color. Our observation indicates that 
there is, on at least four-fifths of the farms of this 
country, an overlooked golden vein, of much great¬ 
er value than any yellow metal likely to be found 
outside of a few special geological formations. 
The following experiment, tried on any farm or 
garden, will explain what we are aiming at. Take 
a quart of fair quality yard manure, and pour upon 
V 
Fig. 1. 
it a pint of water. After standing a week or two, 
drain off half a pint of the liquid. Now prepare 
two corn hills, a few feet apart, on any ground, 
even rich prairie soil. For one hill, make a hole 
three or four inches deep, aud pour into it the half¬ 
pint of liquid, adding a trifle of fine earth, and 
plant the corn. Plant the second hill without this 
preparation. The result will be, almost always, 
that in the first hill the rootlets, and subsequent 
roots, will grow down where the liquid has soaked, 
much more quickly, grow stronger, spread wider, 
and send out far more numerous feeding fibres than 
will be found in the second hill. The young com 
plants (and the same with other plants) will, like 
well fed young animals, develop much earlier and 
take far better advantage of the growing season. 
In short, whatever the soil, this hill will, on the 
average, ripen earlier, produce more stalks, and 
twenty to fifty per cent—often a hundred per cent 
—more sound kernels than the other hill.—And, by 
the way, there is in the quart of fertilizer enough 
material left for a similar effect upou three or four 
other corn hills. 
Now, visit the farm-yards* of the country gener¬ 
ally, and in niue-tenths of them there will be found, 
on one side or another, quarts, gallons, barrelfuls 
of this golden liquid leaching away and wasting— 
often scores and hundreds of barrels of it during a 
year. Yet, at trifling cost, perhaps only an earth 
bank on the lower side of the yard, all this wastage 
may be saved and turned to account. The streams, 
rich in stimulating plant food, now lost from the 
yards of the four and one-third million farms of 
our country, may, with very little care and trouble, 
be retained in the rotting organic matter, and 
transferred to corn hills and to the roots of 
other crops. Real gold will be found in the in¬ 
creased crops, and be obtained at far less cost and 
labor than is expended by the great mass of gold 
miners. Proper attention to so simple a matter on 
the farms of the country, taken together, would 
add more dollars to the wealth of the country 
every year than is now dug out of all the gold 
mines between the Atlantic and Pacific. During 
this leisure month let every one look over his own 
premises, and see what he is wasting in this direc¬ 
tion, and where he can save and profit. Another 
chapter (p. 19) discusses the philosophy of manur¬ 
ing which will be a seasonable study now. 
A Brush Fork. 
Mr. J. Stewart sends a sketch of a fork, which 
he has used for handling grape cuttings. As it 
may be of service for other like work, an engrav¬ 
ing of it is here given. The fork is made by fit¬ 
ting a board, two feet long and six inches wide, 
upon the handle. This prevents the cuttings 
from sliding down the fork handle, as they would 
otherwise do when the fork is raised upon the 
shoulder. 
Wire- Worms. — The term “wire-worm” is 
applied to the larvae of several species of insects. 
Some of these live upon decaying wood and are not 
injurious. These larvae are all long, in proportion 
to their breadth, and this has suggested the com¬ 
mon name. The crops which are most injured by 
the Wire-worms are potato, corn, cereal grains, 
and grasses. In England, where these “worms” 
are abundant, potatoes on ends of sticks are buried 
here aud there, to serve as traps, and are taken up 
at intervals, when the “worms” are removed. 
