1883.J 
AMEBIC AB AG BICIJLTUBIST. 
117 
A Swing Gate. 
The most convenient gate is one which will 
swing either way. and for the main and road 
gates, we would suggest using stone posts, 
or else heavy posts of locust, which latter is 
the most durable wood we can find. The il¬ 
lustration shows plainly how to construct 
a good ^wing-gate, one which will not only 
open either way with equal facility, but 
will, when being opened, raise up at the 
latcli-end of the gate, so as to avoid any 
danger of catching on the ground. The 
panels, or rails of the gate, three in number, 
can be made of inch-pine, the middle one 
6 inches wide, and the others, 4 inches, 
with wires between them. A brace, from 4 
to 5 inches wide is put on securely in place 
with wrought nails. The stiles of the gate 
should be made of good oak, the one the 
gate is hung by being 4 by 4 inches, and the 
one at the latch end, 2 by 3 inches. If the 
gate is a very long one, a middle stile, of 
pine, nailed on with wrought nails securely, 
can be put on, which will considerably 
strengthen it, though it is not necessary 
where the gate is of the usual length. If 
stone posts are used, the hinge-bolts can 
have screw-threads cut on them, passed 
through a neatly-cut hole in the post. The 
top hinge is merely a hook one, while the 
lower hinge is shown above the cut of the 
gate, and explains itself. 
The European or English Walnut. 
The profitable culture of the English Wal¬ 
nut in California appears to have excited an in¬ 
terest in the tree on this side of the Continent, 
as shown by our numerous inquiries regarding 
it. In Europe this is known simply as the 
walnut. Our early settlers prefixed the term 
English to many things they received by the 
way of the Mother Country, without reference 
to their origin; hence we have “ English Wal¬ 
nut.” It is also called, especially by dealers, 
the “ Madeira Nut.” The tree is as much an 
exotic in England and in Spain as it is with us, 
it being a native of Persia and other parts of 
Asia. This walnut (Juglans regia ) is a rela¬ 
tive to our black walnut and butternut, and, 
like them, forms a large tree; its leaves are 
smooth, the surface of the nut is rather 
smooth, and the husk falls away from it when 
dry. A tree in the grounds of the late A. J. 
Downing, at Newburgh, N. Y., bore several 
bushels of fine nuts annually; this is probably 
the northernmost point at which it has been 
known to bear; it rarely perfects its nuts in 
New York City; near Philadelphia, tbe flow¬ 
ers are often killed by late frosts, and it is 
probably not to be depended upon north of 
Virginia. The French have about a dozen 
varieties, differing in the size and shape of 
the nuts, and propagate them by grafting. 
Like our black walnut, the tree has a very 
long tap-root, on which account the seeds are 
often planted where the trees are' to stand. 
For stocks to be transplanted, a trench is 
opened, in the bottom of which flat tiles are 
laid, and the nuts, root end downwards, are 
planted directly on the tiles; by this method 
the tap-root is checked and fibrous roots pro¬ 
duced. Grafting does not succeed by the or¬ 
dinary methods, and that known as “flute 
budding ” is generally followed. A ring of 
bark, with a bud attached, is removed from 
the tree affording the cion, and placed over a 
stock of the same size, from which a corres¬ 
ponding ring of bark has been removed.- Like 
other nuts, these, if they are not planted soon 
after they are ripe, are kept from becoming 
too dry during the winter by mixing them 
with the soil. The fresh nuts of the first im¬ 
portation of the season look as if they would 
germinate, though we never had occasion to 
try them; they could, no doubt, be procured 
from California in a sufficiently fresh condi¬ 
tion to grow. A remarkable variety origi¬ 
nated in France several years ago, called Jug¬ 
lans preeparturiens. The tree bears large 
numbers of nuts of good size, with a tender 
shell, often bearing the third year from the 
seed. The tree does not grow very large, and 
its peculiar character of precocious fruiting 
is perpetuated by seeds. 
Setting Out or Dibbling Plants. 
BT J. E. SCOTT, DEL. 
It is an arduous task to set out a large 
number of plants in the spring in the usual 
manner. In order to make sure of suitable 
weather for transplanting, it is frequently im¬ 
portant that it should be done very rapidly, 
and anything that will facilitate the work 
will be of value. I have found the imple¬ 
ments illustrated of very great assistance in 
setting out such plants as sweet-potatoes, to¬ 
matoes, and cabbages. I do not know where 
they originated, but they have been in use by 
the truckers in this section for three or four 
years past; and as they can be easily made 
by any farmer of average mechanical skill, I 
will describe them with the aid of the sketch¬ 
es herewith sent. The wooden tongs, fig. 1, 
Fig. 1.— THE TONGS. Fig. 2.—THE DIBBLE. 
are about three and a half feet long, and are 
made of two .pieces of about the same width 
and thickness as ordinary lath; these are 
nailed at one end to a block about an inch 
thick and four or five inches long. This is 
used for picking up the plant before placing 
it in the ground. The hole for the plant is 
made with the instrument shown in fig. 2. 
This “ dibble,” or “ dibber,” is a piece of yel¬ 
low pine or ash, half an inch thick, three 
inches wide, and three and a half feet long ; 
it is wedge-shaped at the lower end, where it 
is covered with sheet-iron or tin for a dis¬ 
tance of five or six inches from the point, to 
prevent wear. A little above the middle, an 
old fork-handle or shovel-handle is attached 
at an angle, and about three inches from the 
top there is fastened a strap, provided with 
a buckle, and long enough to reach around 
a man’s arm. 
The manner of operating is shown in fig¬ 
ure 3. A boy drops the plants near the hills, 
and the opera¬ 
tor following, 
seizes each plant 
in turn with the 
tongs, in such 
a way as to 
have the roots 
pointing down¬ 
ward. With his 
left arm he 
thrusts the dib¬ 
ble into the 
ground, and 
slightly turning 
the same, forms 
a hole for the 
reception of the 
plant. After placing the plant in the hole, 
the operator thrusts the dibble into the soil 
near the plant, its point near the lower end of 
the root, and pushes enough soil around the 
roots to complete the work. A good hand 
can set from 10,000 to 12,000 plants per day, 
and at the same time do it as well as it can 
be done in the old way and much easier. 
Cotton Seed in the Garden- 
Since our remarks on the value of products 
from cotton seed, especially as to the value of 
the manure of animals fed on cotton-seed 
meal, several have written to ask us if the 
meal could not be used direct as a fertilizer. 
Of course it could, as nothing is added to the 
meal in passing through the digestive organs 
of the animal. It seems wasteful, however, 
to make this use of an article that can be 
employed as food. Dairymen and others 
find it profitable to feed the cotton-seed 
meal, and get its cost returned to them in 
the increase of milk, while the manure is 
clear gain As to its use directly as manure, 
one must be governed by circumstances. It 
is no more wrong to employ it in this way, 
than it is to burn corn, where that is the 
cheapest fuel. It is certainly practicable, as 
castor-bean pomace, a similar product, is 
largely so employed in some localities. It 
would be desirable to compost it with manure 
before applying it. In the cotton-growing 
States, crude cotton seed is found to make a 
valuable compost for all garden crops, it 
being used especially for onions and cab¬ 
bages. Cotton seed contains a large percent¬ 
age of oil, which is of no value as a fertil¬ 
izer. One method is to use half a ton of 
cotton seed and a quarter of a ton of wood 
ashes to a ton of stable manure. A layer 
of a few inches of manure is first put down, 
then some cotton seed and ashes mixed, 
is alternated with other layers of manure. 
Moisten each layer, and finish with ma¬ 
nure at the top, covering the heap, which 
should be under a roof, with several 
inches of earth. Four tons to the acre of 
