120 THE CULTIVATOR. March, 
or 20 cords of wood per year for the five square 
miles, or 4 cords for each square mile. 
Now, in the thickly settled farming districts, not 
counting cities and villages, there are about 80 
persons per square mile, or ten families averaging 
8 persons each. These families consume on an av¬ 
erage at least 20 cords of fuel each yearly, (many 
consume 40 or 50,) or 200 cords per square mile. 
This is just 50 times as much as is required for the 
yearly use of the plank road. 
Again, nine-tenths of the fences in most parts of 
New-York are made of common stakes and rails; 
48 of these are equal to a cord of wood, and will 
build 3 rods of substantial fence. It requires to 
fence one square mile into ten-acre lots, sixteen 
miles of fence. Throwing off six-tenths for waste 
and woodland, &c., and leaving ten miles, there 
are required for these ten miles no less than one 
thousand cords of wood in rails to fence each square 
mile; and if these last 12 years on an average, there 
are required yearly more than 80 cords for each 
square mile, or 20 times as much as for the plank 
road. 
A village of 1500 persons, consumes in each year 
about enough wood to build ten miles of plank road; 
and the yearly consumption of wood in such a place 
as Rochester, Syracuse, or Utica, would run a half- 
dozen roads in different directions into the country, 
each from ten to thirty miles long, estimating mere¬ 
ly the quantity of wood required. 
Water-tight Cellars. 
I notice in the last number of The Cultivator , 
the description of a mode of excluding water from 
cellars, by ramming in a space with clay between 
the wall and the earth, eight to twelve inches thick. 
Allow me to suggest another and cheaper mode. 
Plaster the whole inside, bottom and all, with two 
or three successive layers of water lime cement, 
making the cellar as tight as a water lime cistern. 
The water cannot get in at sides or bottom; and if 
two or three inches thick, and mixed with pebbles 
at the bottom; no rat, however ingenious, can pass 
it, after well hardened; and it makes a beautiful 
floor for the cellar. X. 
Preparation for Spring Wheat. 
Mr. Q. C. Rich, Chairman of the Committee on 
Field Crops for the Addison County (Vt.) Agricul¬ 
tural Society, makes the following remarks in refer¬ 
ence to the cultivation of wheat: 
II Wheat and Corn, we think, will be admitted 
to be the two most important grains grown in this 
county. Winter and Spring wheat has paid a fair 
profit for the outlay the past season, particularly 
winter, which has not been better in twenty years. 
The best preparation is a clover lay, but in case 
you have none, we would recommend plowing your 
land early in June, and sowing from one to two and 
a half bushels of Buckwheat per acre, to be turned 
under the last of August or first of September. The 
rapid decomposition of the vegetable matter warms 
the soil and makes it more friable—causes the 
wheat to vegetate, grow, and get a stronger 
growth—the roots to strike deeper than they would 
had you applied manure, or summer fallowed, as 
was the usual practice. The Black Sea (a spring 
variety,) is the only kind sown to any extent at 
this time. When it was first introduced into the 
county three-fourths to one bushel was considered 
sufficient to seed an acre; but now many are using 
two bushels; one and a half is believed to be prefe¬ 
rable. 5; 
Durability of IJnderdraius. 
A correspondent of the New England Farmer 
says that in walking over the grounds of the Duke 
of Portland, in the west of Scotland, he was led to 
examine the condition of a brush drain , construct¬ 
ed 32 years previously. The wood of the brush was 
found to be in an undecayed condition, and the drain 
acted as efficiently as newly constructly tile drains 
around it. This appears the more probable, when 
it is remembered that the brush is almost perfectly 
excluded from the external air, and most so on 
clayey ground. The string-pieces of plank roads, 
covered only by the plank, from the air above, are 
found to last 15 or 20 years. There is doubtless a 
great difference in different kinds of wood used as 
brush drain. Red cedar branches, buried in drains 
in clayey ground, would probably last beyond a life¬ 
time. The writer has seen wood dug up in exca¬ 
vating deep wells 30 or 40 feet deep, which appear¬ 
ed to be cedar, perfectly sound, and where it must 
have been deposited at the time of the great deluge. 
The correspondent above referred to, says that 
“ it is well known that so far as permanence is 
concerned, tiles do not, on an average, last more 
than 20 years.” The best ones now constructed, 
will however, doubtless last much longer, when not 
in decidedly unfavorable localities. 
Guano in Agriculture. —The opinion is gain¬ 
ing ground that guano is most advantageously ap¬ 
plied to wheat—the coarser nature of yard manure 
being more appropriate for corn. It is either plow¬ 
ed in, or perhaps better applied in autumn; 200 or 
300 lbs. being usually enough for an acre. Accord¬ 
ing to T. S. Pleasants, in the Am. Farmer , the 
wheat and corn crops of the members of the Farm¬ 
ers’ Club of Sandy Spring, Maryland, where it has 
been much used for the past five years, have avera¬ 
ged as follows: 
1844.—Wheat 10 bushels per acre 
Corn 24 
u 
(l 
1845. 
—Wheat 14 
u 
(( 
Corn 20 
(i 
11 
(season unfav.) 
1846. 
—Wheat 11| 
i ( 
(( 
(season unfav .f 
Corn 21 
St 
(( 
1847. 
—Wheat 15 
u 
(l 
Corn 23 
(s' 
(l 
1848. 
—Wheat 18 
(l 
( ( 
Corn 31 
( ( 
(( 
Insurance of Live Stock.— Col. J. M. Sher¬ 
wood, of Auburn, suggests, through the Evening 
Journal , the formation of a company for the insu¬ 
rance of live-stock. He observes —“ There is in 
this and the adjoining States, a large number of 
valuable breeding animals, horses, cattle and sheep. 
These are all liable to injury and disease, which oc¬ 
casions serious loss to the owners. The liability to 
losses frequently prevents persons from importing 
and introducing valuable breeding stock into the 
country. In order to obviate in some measure these 
objections, I propose thaX there be formed a New- 
York State Live Stock Mutual (or Stock) Insurance 
Company, and that persons willing to join in such 
a company give notice thereof to the Secretary of 
the New York State Agricultural Society before- 
the first of March next. When, if a sufficient num¬ 
ber of persons (or a sufficient amount of capital, if 
a stock company,) are found willing to join in such 
company, measures may be taken to organize one.” 
Such companies have long existed in England, 
where their utility has been very great, and we- 
think they would prove equally beneficial in this 
country. 
