158 
[Apiiil, 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Mass., have peculiarities of excellence which place 
them above all foreign rivalry. The substitution of 
machinery for hand labor has been followed not only 
by greater simplieity, but by a precision in detail, 
and accuracy and uniformity in their time-keeping 
qualities, which by the old method of manufacture are 
unattainable. A smoothness and certainty of movement 
are seenred which proceed from the pcrfectadaptation of 
every piece to its place. The extent of the Waltham 
establishment, the combination of skilled labor, with ma¬ 
chinery perfect and ample, enable them to offer watches 
at lower rates than any other manufacturers. Then- 
annual manufacture is said to ha double that of all other 
makers in this country combined, and much larger than 
the entire manufacture of England. The mechanical im¬ 
provements and valuable inventions of the last fifteen 
years, whether home or foreign in their origin, have been 
brought to their aid, and the presence of over 400,000 
Waltham Watches in the pockets of the people, is the 
best proof of the public approval. We offer a Silver watch, 
jeweled, with chronometer balance, warranted by this 
Company as made of the best materials in the best manner, 
and in pure coin-silver “ hunting” case; weight 3 oz. 
This watch we offer as one of our Premiums, with the full¬ 
est confidence. Upon the movement of each of these 
watches will be engraved, “ American Agriculturist. 
Made by the American Watch Co., Waltham, Mass.” 
Ko. S7.—Farmer's Roy’s Library.— 
A few dollars’ worth of books pertaining to the farm will 
give the boys new ideas, set them to thinking and ob¬ 
serving, and thus enable them to make theU • heads help 
their hands. One such book will, in the end, be of far 
more value to a yonth than to have an extra aero of land 
on coming to manhood. Any smart boy can easily secure 
this Premium, and he will have two sterling works by a 
well-known, practical farmer. They aro Allen’s New 
American Farm Book, and Allen’s American Cattle. 
No. 106.—General Boole Premium. 
— Any one sending 23 or more names, may select books 
from our list to the amount of 10 cents for each subscrib¬ 
er sent at $1 i or 30 cents for each name sent at $1.20; or 
60 cents for each name at $1.50. This offer is only for 
clubs of 25 or more. The books u'itt be sent by mail or ex¬ 
press , prepaid through , by us. 
No.l4>y.—•'Thomas’ Smootiling;Har¬ 
row and Broadcast Weeder, —Wo consider this 
so good an implement that we havo mado arrangements 
with the manufacturers to offer it as a premium. Mr. J. 
J Thomas has so wide and so good a reputation, both 
as a writer on agricultural subjects, and as author o 
Farm Implements and Farm Machinery,” that his name 
alone would be a safe guarantee for the goodness of a 
farm tool or machine. This harrow has, however, been 
tosted by ether good judges, who agree that it is a 
really valuable article. It is a thorough pulverizer of 
the soil and good cultivator of growing crops. It is of 
easy draft, takes a sweep of nine feet, can harrow twenty 
acres a day, and it leaves the ground as fine and smooth 
as a garden-oed. For 33 subscribers to American Agri¬ 
culturist , at $1.50, or 120 do., at $1, or for 19 subscribers 
to Hearth and Home, at $3, or 60 do., at $3.50, or for 21 
subscribers to both papers, at $4 for the two, we will 
send the harrow, worth $23. Send for descriptive list 
to J. J. Thomas & Co., Proprietors, Geneva, N. Y. 
Agricultural News and Items. 
Twenty-two head of cattle, lately shipped from Illinois 
to New York, weighed over sixty-one thousand pounds, 
an average of over twenty-eight hundred; ton of them 
averaged over thirty hundred. They wero grazed on the 
open prairie.A Shorthorn cow, Hosedale, nowowned 
by Col. King, of Minnesota, brought her former owner, 
in three years, the amount of $3,500 in prizes, besides 
three calves.The prize Merino ram at the Ohio State 
Fair lias been sold to a Maryland breeder for $300. 
Twenty-five Merino ewes were lately sold in Vermont 
for $1,000.Five liuffdred dollars was paid for a pair 
of Poland-China hogs which took the premium at the 
Michigan State Fuir.A collection of two hundred 
and three Poland-China swine were exhibited by a sin¬ 
gle breeder in Fulton Co., Illinois, at the fair of 1S71; a 
building expressly tor their accommodation was erected 
by the owner at his own expense.A Wisconsin 
farmer, in 1871, from fifteen cows, made 5,530 pounds of 
cheese and 000 pounds of butter, which brought him $730 
in cash.ACalifornia sheep raiser owns 90,003 sheep, 
from which he realizes an income of $100,000 yearly ; he 
commenced twenty years ago with a flock of 800. 
Mutton carcasses are shipped from the Rocky Mountains 
to New York for $1.73 per head. It was stated at the 
N. Y. Dairymen’s Association that a grade Ayrshire cow 
owned by J. II. McMillan, of Erie Co., in that State, had 
given during twenty-three weeks an average of forty- 
three ponnds of milk per day, from which 322 pounds of 
butter had been made in that time, equal to fourteen 
pounds per week. She was six years old.Tho ma¬ 
chine for extracting honey from the comb, called the 
Mel Extractor, is now largely used in this country and 
Canada; one bee-keeper, during the past season, took 
from one hundred and twenty-five hives and their swarms 
ten tons of honey by the use of this machine.In 
California there is a single apiary of two thousand hives; 
the Italian bees are there considered the most productive 
honey-makers.A Canadian breeder has sold a Short¬ 
horn hull, which has taken many important premiums, 
to an American farmer of Wythe Co., West Virginia. 
A eattlc sale in California, made by the executor of the 
estate of J. R. Walsh, realized $40,000; unbroken horses 
brought from $24 to $120; hulls, from $5 to $100, and 
cows from $18 to $100.Butter is being packed in 
Washington Territory, for want of tubs and jars, in 
cylindrical bags of white muslin; these are again packed 
in barrels which are filled up with brine; ill this manner 
the butter is said to keep excellently, and the packages 
arc cheaper and cleaner than tubs or jars... The scarcity 
of hay in Canada has caused great activity in the demand 
for fodder or straw-cutters, and from motives of economy 
and to prevent sacrificing their stock, Canadian farmers 
are cutting, steaming, and feeding straw with crushed 
grain.The Silver-beet is being raised in Canada as a 
crop for plowing tinder as manure; it produces a mass of 
leaves thirty inches high, which furnishes a large quan¬ 
tity of green manure.A New York farmer has re¬ 
alized $700 from fourteen acres of clover in the shape of 
hay anil seed.Tobacco has been a very profitable 
crop in the New England States the past year; one 
farmer grew on half an acre a crop which sold for $165; 
another, on five acres, to the value of $2,S6S, and another 
on two acres $841. Some of the choicest leaf sold for $1 
per pound, and several farmers sold at 22 to 80 cents a 
pound all through. One farmer iu Massachusetts 
had twenty-eight acres. In Connecticut a worn-out 
field „was fifty years ago planted iu timber. The 
timber has yielded ten cords per year and fencing for the 
farm for twenty years past, and when cleared last year 
produced fifty cords per acre, and is now new land again. 
.In the San Joaqnin valley, California, one man 
owns 330,000 acres of land, and twelve others in all own 
2,783,000 acres; one man’s pasture field lias sixty-five 
miles of fence around it, and his farm is forty-five miles 
long.O. Earnhardt, Fairport, N. Y., lately sold a 
steer of his own raising for $224.72; it was forty-four 
months old and weighed 2,809 pounds ; during summer 
ho was fed on pasture and some meal daily, and in win¬ 
ter on hay, roots, and meal.C. W. Wadsworth sold 
at auction at Gcneseo, N. Y., the following Shorthorn 
stock at the prices named, viz.: a roan cow, “ Music,” 
$195; white cow, “Mollie,” $60; red cow, “ Honey,” 
$74; roan cow, ” Melody,” $120; others from $93 to 
$130, and hull-calves and bulls from $35 to $105 ; $1,500 
was refused for five choice heifers.Mr. Alexander, 
of Ky., has sold two Shorthorn lieifers to an English 
purchaser for $13,000.Irrigated land in some parts 
of Europe sells for $500 per acre, while adjoining land, 
not thus improved, will sell for $50 per acre. An owner 
of land having a surplus of water from his works often 
sells it to liis neighbors for large sums, or rents it yearly 
to them.Orendorf Bros., of McLean Co., Ill., lately 
had at Chicago eighty-one hogs fed by themselves, which 
averaged 513 pounds. The hogs were of the Poland- 
China variety.Ex-Commissioner of Agriculture 
Capron has purchased a large quantity of agricultural 
implements in this country, mainly from Western manu¬ 
facturers, for shipment to Japan.A Pennsylvania 
farmer planted one acre in pumpkins in hills six feet 
apart, whicli yielded fifty double wagon-loads, estimated 
at over forty tons, besides which two hundred quarts of 
seed were saved, which brought $30 in cash.A 
Western farmer has saved his corn fodder by placing it 
in pits dug in the ground, salting it, and covering with 
straw and earth; iu this same manner clover is cured 
and preserved in parts of Belgium.An Ayrshire 
cow imported by Mr. Peters, of Massachusetts, is said to 
havo given in one hundred and fourteen days an averago 
of 49 pounds 3 ounces of milk per day, and three days’ 
milk gave 0 pounds 3 ounces of butter; the weight of 
this cow was 967 pounds. An Ayrshire cow, also owned 
by Mr. Peters, when slaughtered, gave 8S2 pounds of 
beef and 111 pounds of tallow ; the beef was fine-grained, 
well-marbled, and of tho very best quality.It is es¬ 
timated that the cattle in the United States number 28,- 
143,240, valued at $1,000,000,030.The herd of Ayr¬ 
shire cows owned by J. n. Morgan, of Ogdenshurg, N. 
Y., number thirty-seven bulls and fifty lieifers and cows. 
.At the Kansas Agricultural College farm tho crop 
of wheat yielded forty-three and a half bushels per acre. 
.A Michigan farmer experimenting with Alsike 
clover found it to fail on dry soils, hut on wet, mucky 
lands It yielded well. It gtood exposure to the weather 
well, was free from dnst, and was agreeable to the stock, 
and matured with the timothy. The aftergrowth amount¬ 
ed, however, to nothing.Amasa Scott, of Orleans 
Co., Vt., has a pair of steers, twenty months old, which 
weigh 2,500 pounds.Fifteen companies, with a capi¬ 
tal of $2,000,000, arc engaged in mining and Manufactur¬ 
ing the Charleston phosphates.Ail Englishman once 
appeared at dinner in a coat which was made from cloth 
woven from wool which was on the sheep’s backs on the 
morning of the same day; and now a California farmer 
has breakfasted on bread which was made from flour 
ground from wheat cut, thrashed, and taken to mill the 
same morning, four hours only being occupied in the 
whole process.M. L. Sullivant, an Illinois farmer, 
keeps two hundred and twenty-live plows, one hundred 
and forty-two cultivators, three hundred and fifty mules, 
fifty horses, and fifty oxen at work, and the result is that 
he needs a corn-crib eight feet high and five miles long, 
and a liay-shed that holds 2,500 tons of hay.The 
condition of winter wheat is unpromising generally 
throughout the country; exposure to severe cold has in¬ 
jured the grain which unfavorable weather in the fall 
left in a very weak condition.In Indiana, the State 
Board of Agriculture elected John S. Sutherland as 
President, J. D. G. Nelsen Yice-President, A. Herron 
Secretary, Carlos Dickson Treasurer, and H. W. Caldwell 
Superintendent.Two townships of land oil the 
North Pacific Railroad have been purchased for the set¬ 
tlement of a colony of Scotch farmers, who are now ar¬ 
riving with a choice selection of thorough-bred stock_ 
Ten thousand acres of land in Maine have been pur¬ 
chased for a party of Swedish immigrants.J. Bridge- 
ford, Paris, Ky., has sold for $300 a Shorthorn bull-calf, 8 
months old, to J. H. Talbott, of Missouri; the calf 
weighed 760 pounds.N. P. Neely, Ottawa, HI., sold 
in January the following stock <*to Theodore Willson, 
Osage, Iowa: Shorthorn bulls “ 2d Duke of Greenebush,” 
$500; “ Young Primrose,” $300; “Young Beauty,” $300; 
heifer calf “ Golden Age,” $300; “ Last Rose of Sum¬ 
mer,” $300. To D. Y. Perrin, Grant Co., Wis., “ 5th 
Duke of Greenebush,” $500; also one Essex sow, $60 ; 
three Essex pigs, $60; one Berkshire sow, $50. Mr. 
Neely has fed his stock the past winter on Hungarian 
hay cut before the seed was ripe, and found it good feed; 
he also raised 6,000 bushels of mangels on five acres. 
PEAR CULTURE 
FOR PROFIT. 
By DP. T. CfcTTIlMV, 
PRACTICAL HORTICULTURIST. 
ILLUSTRATED. 
If one wishes to raise pears intelligently, and with the 
best results, he must know first the character of his soil, tho 
best mode of preparing it, the best varieties to select under 
existing conditions, the best mode of planting, pruning, 
fertilizing, grafting, and utilizing the ground before the 
trees come into bearing, and finally, of gathering and pack¬ 
ing for market. 
The hope of furnishing practical Information on all these 
points has induced tho author to endeavor to draw for 
others the same lessons which years of practical experience 
have afforded him. 
Contents: 
Chap. I. Varieties. 
“ II. Aspect. 
“ III. Preparation of 
the Soil. 
" IV. Distance Apart 
in Planting. 
“ Y. Dwarfs and 
Standards. 
” VI. Planting-Time. 
“ VII. Planting. 
“ VIII. Nursery Trees. 
Chap. IX. Varieties to Plant. 
“ X. Pruning. 
“ XI. Manuring and 
Mulching. 
*' XII. Gathering Fruit. 
“ XIII. Marketing Pears. 
“ XIV. Profits. 
" XV. Propagation, etc. 
“ XVI. Practical Sugges¬ 
tions- 
“ XVII. Orchard Record. 
PRICE, POST-PAID. 
$1.00 
Address 
ORANGE JUDD «fc CO., 
2-15 Broadway, New York. 
THOROUGH - BRED STOCK. 
Jersey Cows, Heifers, and young Bulls. 
Ayrshire Cows, Heifers, and young Bulls. 
Guernsey Bull, 2 yrs. old, very flue. 
Cotswold Sheep. The famous “ Maple Shade Flock,” as 
flue as any in the country. Rams, Ewes, and Lambs. 
Berkshire Figs, of the very best blood. 
Essex Pigs, as good as can he found in this country or any 
other. 
Perfect pedigrees given with all tliorough-hred stock, 
which may he seen at my farm (Herdsdale), Florence, Mass. 
Send communications to 
L. A. CHASE, 
245 Broadway, New York. 
