1883.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
281 
tree should be of light, strong wood, and long 
enough for the horses to pull conveniently. 
This implement is especially adapted to 
cleaning ditches while the water is flowing, 
though it will do good work when they are 
dry. Begin at the upper end, when water 
is running, and drive down stream. Bear 
the scrapers down hard enough to force all 
weeds and silt high up the banks. If the 
ditch is to be deepened, three or four trips, 
with two men riding, may be necessary. 
The Function of Fallows. 
The fallow is one of the oldest methods of 
preparing land for growing crops. The 
ground is plowed and replowed through the 
season, thus exposing the bare soil to the at¬ 
mosphere, and destroying the weeds as they 
spring up from seeds that find favorable con¬ 
ditions for germination. The fallow relieves 
the field from crop bearing, and improves 
the soil. If the soil is a clay, its mechanical 
texture is made more suitable for the growth 
of plant roots, while the increased circulation 
of air induces chemical changes that result 
in available food compounds for the coming 
crop. In this way a soil containing an 
abundance of potash locked up in insoluble 
compounds, may have this essential set free 
by the chemical processes that take place in 
“ weathering.” In like manner the organic 
matter in the soil will be changed, and solu¬ 
ble compounds of nitrogen result. The pro¬ 
duction of nitric acid is probably the leading 
good result of fallowing. Dr. Lawes has 
found, on the experimental farm at Botham- 
sted, England, that the soil free from all 
crops contained at the end of summer from 
34 to 55 pounds of nitrogen per acre in the 
form of nitric acid. At the current rates for 
this element, 25 cents per pound, it is seen 
that this accumulation is an important one. 
If the season is dry, the increase is sufficient 
to enable the soil to produce twice as much 
wheat as it would without the treatment. 
These nitrates are very soluble, and heavy 
rains wash them out, lessening the benefit 
of the fallow. The most active nitrification 
takes place in hot weather, and the late rains 
in autumn are sure to carry a part of the best 
results of the fallow out of reach. 
Nearly all the good of fallowing is obtained 
by a green crop that is either plowed under, 
or fed to live stock, and the manure returned 
to the land. A soil gains in its stock of 
available plant food by growing crops, if 
none of the soil elements are removed. Pas¬ 
turage is one of the best methods of recruit¬ 
ing land. Potash and phosphoric acid are 
brought up from the lower soil by the roots, 
and finally deposited either on the surface or 
in the turf. In like manner, the nitric acid 
that might have escaped in the drainage wa¬ 
ter, is captured by the roots, and changed 
into a fixed form in organic compounds. A 
quicker method of renewing the strength of 
a feeble soil is to grow some scavenger 
plant, like buckwheat, and plow under the 
whole crop, thus adding organic matter rap¬ 
idly to the surface soil. This may be fol¬ 
lowed by clover, a plant that has a special 
renovating power, and by growing through¬ 
out the whole season is one of the best means 
of gathering and holding fertility. The fal¬ 
low is valuable, but in most cases a growing 
crop does a larger and more lasting work of 
restoration. 
Jersey Cattle at the South. 
We are pleased to learn that Jersey cattle, 
are becoming favorites in our Southern States, 
and are rapidly increasing. Large individual 
herds are already established there, and the 
amount of butter made from them per cow 
is a fair average of the production of the Jer¬ 
seys at the North. With the exception of 
the East Indian, tried some years'ago, the 
Jerseys are said to endure the climate better 
than any other foreign cattle; and there are 
fewer losses by death from them in acclimat¬ 
ing. Some think this is because they are na¬ 
tives of a warmer country than other breeds 
which have been taken South. But as the 
Jersey is rather a family pet, we suspect it is 
owing mainly to its being better cared for, 
housed from the scorching sun by day and 
heavy deleterious dews by night, while the 
food and water supplied is of a more health¬ 
ful and superior quality. 
A still stronger reason for their superior 
healthfulness consists in their being much 
less fleshy than other cattle. Any animal 
which carries considerable flesh, like the 
Shorthorn and Hereford for example, are apt 
to be feverish in hot weather. 
A Dipping and Scalding Box. 
Mr. Peter Kuhl, Canyon City, Grant 
County, Ore., sends us a drawing of a box 
A DIPPING BOX. 
used principally for dipping sheep, but which 
is equally convenient for scalding hogs, cook¬ 
ing grain and roots for stock, etc. It is 
made of two-inch pine boards, six feet long 
and two feet wide, rounded at the ends. A 
heavy plate of sheet iron is nailed with rod 
nails on the bottom and ends. Let the iron 
project about one inch on each side. The 
ends, being rounded, will prevent the fire 
from burning the wood-work. They also 
make it handier for dipping sheep, scalding 
hogs, or for taking out the boiled food. 
The box is set on two walls about eighteen 
inches high, and the hind end of the brick¬ 
work is built into a short chimney. 
The Potato Onion. 
The potato onion is a variety of the onion 
which has completely lost the habit of pro¬ 
ducing flowers and seeds ; it does not even 
push up a flower stem. 
Owing to the erroneous impression that it 
was introduced into England from Egypt it 
is sometimes called the “ Egyptian Onion.” 
In this country it is often known as the 
“English Multiplier,” and “Underground 
Onion” is still another name for it. It is a 
medium-sized, yellowish-brown onion, with 
a stronger flavor than that of the common 
kinds. If a large potato onion be planted in 
spring, it will produce a cluster, sometimes 
as many as a dozen, of smaller bulbs, varying 
in size, from a filbert, upwards. These small 
onions, when planted next year, will each in¬ 
crease in size to form a large bulb. The gen¬ 
erations thus alternate. One-year offsets,, 
or small bulbs, are produced, and the next 
year these grow to the full size. Ordinarily 
it would take two years to grow an onion of 
this kind, but in practice, some of the bulbs 
in a cluster of small ones, are often large 
enough for use, and when a small bulb is set 
out, it, besides growing to a large bulb, often 
produces several small ones also. So often 
does this occur, that, in cultivation on a 
small scale, it is not necessary to grow a lot 
of offsets especially for “seed,” as enough 
are usually produced, attached to the large 
bulbs. This onion is very hardy and may re¬ 
main in the ground all winter. It is also early. 
In some localities, especially near Norfolk* 
Va., this variety is used as the market crop* 
to the exclusion of those raised from seeds.. 
Nature and Value of Land Plaster. 
L. H. BAILEY, JK., BOTANIC GARDENS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 
The vexed questions regarding the fertiliz¬ 
ing effects of land plaster have been pretty 
satisfactorily answered through the com¬ 
bined efforts of chemists and experimental 
stations. Its benefits may be summed up as 
follows: The one marked and most im¬ 
portant effect of land plaster is the aid it 
renders in the growth of clover and other 
leguminous plants, as peas, beans, vetch, etc.. 
Liebig’s “Mineral Theory,” which supposed! 
that nitrogen, ammonia, and the organic 
acids are of no manurial value, and that only 
the ash ingredients, as potash, lime, etc., are 
useful, has been exploded. Chemists now 
know that accumulated nitrogen, in the- 
form of ammonia and nitrates, is the first in 
importance of all manurial agents. It is 
from the fact that clover contains more ac¬ 
cumulated nitrogen than other plants, that, 
it has become the leading crop in American 
agriculture. It is known that plaster causes 
a vigorous growth of clover, both by supply¬ 
ing sulphur from its own composition and 
from the power it has of liberating nitrogen 
from vegetable matter. A prominent scien¬ 
tist has said : “ the secret of American farm¬ 
ing lies in plastering land for clover, and 
then plowing the clover under.” 
Plaster used on other crops than clover is 
of little avail. Plaster is composed of lime 
and sulphur, each of which is a valuable 
plant food; but all ordinary soils contain 
enough of these materials for the growth of 
croys. It is of great use in stables to catch 
the carbonate of ammonia which escapes 
from dung. Sprinkled about the stable and 
thrown out with the manure, it becomes a 
valuable means of supplying nitrogen. 
The great economic value of land plaster 
lies almost wholly in its influence upon the 
growffh of clover. This influence and its ac¬ 
tion in stables, etc., are the points to be noted. 
Prof. Bose, a noted French investigator, 
circulated a list of questions among the most 
careful of French farmers. With other things 
he asked: “ Does plaster aid in the growth 
of leguminous plants ?” Forty answered yes- 
three, no. “ Does it help cereals ?” Thirty, 
no; two, yes. “Will barren soils be made 
fertile by it?” All, no. “ Will it supply the 
plqce of muck?” All, no. “Is it of benefit 
on wet lands ?” All responded no. 
