1849. 
THE CULTIVATOR 
129 
Have you a sufficiency of shade trees and shrubbery 
to make your situation pleasant ? If not, now is the 
time to plant them. It will cost you but little labor. 
Plant them, keep cattle from them, and natural agents 
will do the rest. 
Although we would not encourage extravagance of 
style in our common farmers, still we can see no good 
reason why they should not practice and encourage 
correct taste, as well as those engaged in other pur¬ 
suits. It is believed that those farmers who are the 
most particular in all their operations, are the most 
prosperous, provided they avoid what may, (as applied 
to farmers) be justly termed extravagance. 
The time when a particular job is done, may not be 
of much importance to the manufacturer or mechanic, 
but to the farmer it is all important that he does almost 
every thing at the right time. He has to depend upon 
natural agents for success; and they will not come 
to his aid, unless he accommodates them as to time. 
Nature does not alter her laws or rules, to suit either 
the ignorance, misjudgment or slackness of the farmer. 
If he plants his corn too late in the spring, she will 
not stay the frost in the fall to give it time to ripen. If 
then, we would be benefited by natural agents we must 
so observe their laws as that they come most readily to 
our aid; and there is no season of the year when this 
observance is more important than in the spring. Far¬ 
mer. Columbia, Feb. 24, 1849. 
Notices of Publications. 
THE AMERICAN FARM BOOK ; or Compend of American 
Agriculture ; being a Practical Treatise on Soils, Manures, 
Draining, Irrigation, Grain, Roots, Fruits, Cotton, Tobac¬ 
co, Sugar-Cane, Rice, and every Staple Product of the United 
States, with the best methods of Planting, Cultivation, and Pre¬ 
paration for Market: By R. L Allen. New-York, C M. 
Saxton. 
“ The American Farm Book ” is a handsome dollar volume, by 
one of our most correct agricultural writers, systematically arrang¬ 
ed, and embracing those subjects of most general interest to the 
practical farmer, treated in a plain and popular manner. It is a re¬ 
production of the “Brief Compend of American Agriculture,” 
published by the same author about two years since, and which 
met with so rapid a sale, as to induce a new and enlarged edition, 
under the more appropriate title now chosen ; and we are glad to 
hear that this is intended as one of the first in a “ Series of lessons 
for the American Farmer,” to be issued by Mr. Allen; who, 
from his good judgment, familiar acquaintance with rural affairs, 
and ability as a writer, is peculiarly qualified foi such a work- The 
volume before us will be found useful to the farmer of the north 
and the planter of the south, treating as it does of the staple pro¬ 
ducts of every section of our country. It is illustrated by about 
100 engravings, and is got up in a style, creditable to the enterprising 
publisher. 
THE ARCHITECT; a series of Original Designs for Domestic 
and Ornamental Cottages, connected with Landscape Gardening, 
adapted to the United States ; illustrated by Drawings of Ground 
Plots. Plans, Perspective Views, Elevations, Sections and Details. 
By W. H. Ranlett, New York. 
We have on several previous occasions noticed this excellent work. 
It continues to be published as heretofore, at fifty cents each num¬ 
ber, containing two complete plans of houses, with full estimates 
of the cost. The work is doing much good by the dissemination of 
correct information on architecture. 
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE & ARTS.—We have 
received the March number of this excellent work. As usual, its 
contents are of a high character in a scientific view. Among other 
articles, we notice the following : Some new discoveries respecting 
the Dates on the Great Calendar Stone of the Ancient Mexicans, 
with Observations on the Mexican Cycle of Fifty-two Years, by E. 
G- Squier ; on the comparative value of different kinds of Coal for 
the purpose of Illumination; and on methods not hitherto practiced 
for ascertaining the Value of the Gases they afford, by Andrew 
Fyfe ; Parallelism of the Palaeozoic Formation of North America, 
with those of Europe, by Ed. de Verneuil, translated with cor¬ 
rections, by James Hall; Notes on Upper California, by James 
D. Dana. This work is conducted by Messrs. Silliman & Dana, 
and published at New Haven, on the first day of every second 
month, at $5 per year. 
THE SCHOOL JOURNAL AND VERMONT AGRICUL¬ 
TURIST, is the title of a monthly (16 page octavo.) published at 
Windsor, by Messrs. Bishop & Tracy, the editors of the “ Ver¬ 
mont Chronicle,” the Nos. of the current vol. of which have come 
to hand since our last. It is devoted in equal parts, to Agriculture 
and the cause of Education in Common Schools, a subject of 
great importance to our farmers, so many of whom are dependant 
upon these schools for all the “schooling” they receive. It 
is handsomely printed, and published at the extremely low price of 
twenty-five cents a year, where 16 copies are taken. 
WORKING FARMER.—We have received the first number of 
a publication with this title, published at New York, by Kingman 
& Cross, and edited by Prof. J. J. Mapes. It is a well filled quar¬ 
to of sixteen pages, and is to be issued monthly, at fifty cents a 
year. 
WOOL GROWER AND MAGAZINE OF HORTICUL¬ 
TURE—This is a periodical just started at Buffalo, by T. 0. Pe¬ 
ters, Esq. It is lo be published monthly, each number containing 
sixteen pages octavo, at fifty cents a year. Mr. P is favorably 
known as an agricultural writer, and will, no doubt, make an inte¬ 
resting paper. It will give particular attention to all branches of 
the wool business. It is to have a horticultural department, to be 
conducted by B. Hodge, an intelligent and experienced cultivator. 
Answers to dorresponbents. 
STAGGERS IN SHEEP.—A. G. M., Isle of Wight, Va. The 
disease you call “ blind staggers,” is what is called “ sturdy” by 
veterinarians. It is caused by parasitic animals in the brain, called 
hydatids. The origin of these animals, and the means by which 
they are propagated, are not fully understood. Hogg, the Ettrick 
Shepherd, says the disease is most destructive on farms that are ill- 
sheltered, and on which the sheep are most exposed to blasts and 
showers. A cure is seldom effected. It is recommended to remove 
the animals, as soon as attacked, from wet places to dry situations. 
Some have been cured by trepanning, and the extraction of the hy¬ 
datids. 
BONE SPAVIN.—W C.B., Colchester, Ct. The disease which 
has attacked the hock joint of your horse, is probably bone spavin. 
The safest treatment for it is blistering, which, if long continued, 
may absorb the bony deposite, or at least lessen the inflammation. 
The use of the chisel or the hot iron, in cutting or burning th© 
swelling, is discouraged by the best farriers 
TOBACCO FOR SMOKINU—A. C. R., Walden’s Ridge, Tenn. 
We are unable to give you the modus operandi of raising tobacco 
in Cuba, exclusively for smoking. An account of the mode of rais¬ 
ing tobacco in Connecticut, will be found in the Cult for 1844, p. 8&. 
FOWLS EATING FEATHERS.— “A Subscriber,” Wind¬ 
sor, Ct. The habit of eating each other’s feathers, which fowls of¬ 
ten have, when confined in yards, is not perhaps, fully understood. 
It is a morbid appetite, apparently induced in the outset, by the im¬ 
patience of the fowl under confinement. It is very difficult to cure, 
and we have known it to be kept up till some individuals of the 
flock, who were made special victims, were almost entirely strip¬ 
ped of their feathers, and sometimes have even had their entrails 
torn out. The best preventives are animal food, bones, (not burnt) 
oyster shells, charcoal, and a variety of grains, with clean apart¬ 
ments, and plenty of clean water. Sometimes a particular fowl, 
shows a more inveterate dispostion to eat feathers than the rest of 
the flock. It is best to kill or remove such. 
TIE-CHAINS FOR CATTLE —8. G., Bullville, Orange Co., 
N. Y. The common, and we think the best mode of using these 
chains, is around an upright stanchion, which is inserted at the low¬ 
er end into a piece of timber, laid along to form one side of the 
manger, and for the cattle to feed over. A separate stall and feed¬ 
ing space is preferable for each animal. (See Cultivator for 1847 
pp. 184, 185. 
FATTENING HOGS.—W. R. W., Vienna Cross-Roads, Ohio 
In answer to the question whether you “ can raise and fatten fifty 
hogs on one thousand bushels of corn?” we think much would de¬ 
pend on the degree of fatness to which they were to be brought. 
But with a good breed of hogs and proper care in feeding, we should 
think 20 bushels of corn would make 200 pounds of pork—or ten 
pounds to a bushel. Some trials have shown twelve pounds to the 
bushel. 
USE OF LIME —M. L. C., Sangerfield, Oneida County, N. Y. 
We should think it probable that lime would be useful as a manure 
on the drained swamp you describe, though at the price you men¬ 
tion, 18 cents per bushel, we have doubts whether its use would be 
profitable. Better to try. it first on a small scale The vegetable 
matter of the swamp would be valuable to absorb the urine of ani¬ 
mals, and would probably be a good, manure, mixed with ashes. 
WHITE CLOVER SEED —W R., Canada West. The price 
of this article is thirty-five cents per pound, by the small quantity. 
It can be had at the Albany Agricultural Warehouse, it is not ea¬ 
sy to save the seed, as it is seldom grown by itself. Most of the seed 
sold in this country is imported from Holland. 
GRAFTING PEACHES.—C. 8., Shelburne, Mass. Peaches are 
not readily propagated by grafting, and we should think it. would 
not be an object to make the attempt. Budding is the mode gene¬ 
rally adopted for this fruit. In regard to remedying the difficulty 
you experience from the buds winter-killing, we should be glad to 
recei ve the suggessions of our correspondents. 
MADDER.—The proper time to obtain the roots of madder is 
autumn They can be had of J. Eaton, of West Winfield, N Y., 
at $2 50 per bushel—delivered at Utica. 
GRASS FOR PARKS -W. H. T , New York. It is not easy 
to obtain a firm, velvety turf, in closely wooded parks. The best 
grass we are acquainted with for this purpose, is the common spire 
grass, or Kentucky blue grass— Poa pratensis- Of the Bermuda 
grass, grown in the Southern states, we have no personal know¬ 
ledge. The seed of the Kentucky blue grass can be obtained of 
the seedsmen in New York. It may be sown any time in spring, 
when the ground is moist. About a bushel, or ten pounds of tole¬ 
rably clean seed, will be sufficient for an acre. 
