48 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
Do JVot Fail to Read It.— The 
Premium List on page 73 of this paper is worthy of the 
attention of everybody who would like to do good and at 
the same time make money Thousands of persons in 
years past, not only in all parts of this country, but also 
in British America and in other parts of the world, have 
each obtained one or more of these valuable premium 
articles by simply collecting a list of subscribers and for¬ 
warding them, with their subscriptions, to the publish¬ 
ers. Do not fail to read the Premium List. 
Italian Rye Grass.- “J. S. TV.,” Los 
Angelos, Cal. The seed of Italian rye grass may be pro¬ 
cured of any of the principal seedsmen in New York. The 
price is about $4 per bushel. No other grass does so 
well for irrigated pastures or may be cut so many times 
in one season. 
Sheep in South Carolina.— “G. H. 
McM,,” Winnsboro, S.C., says: In January, I860, a planter 
of Fairfield county bought thirty-eight sheep which he 
turned into his pasture, and soon after bought a Bake- 
well ram, and afterward a Merino and then a South-down 
ram. This was the total of his purchases. He now 
(November, 1873), has 330 sheep worth $1,000. His wool 
has netted him $900, and his mutton has netted $S75, be¬ 
sides what his family consumed, and mutton has been 
their only meat during summer and fall of every year. 
No care was taken of the sheep except to salt them and 
to give them a little cotton seed in the winter. The ma¬ 
nure, with very little effort to save it, has enriched thirty 
acres of land so that it now averages 1,000 pounds seed 
cotton per acre instead of 900 pounds previously. The 
sheep have a little more than doubled in number each 
year except this year. This exception is caused by the 
fact that 100 of the flock strayed off last December, and 
when fonnd late in January they had lost all their lambs 
but 18. The experience of this gentleman proves that 
sheep would be very profitable in the South with careful 
management. The profit would arise not alone from the 
mutton and wool, but in supplanting commercial fertil¬ 
izers on all lands lying at a distance from railroads. 
Three-Horse Clevis.—“Z. H. M.,” 
Richmond, Ind. It is impossible for us to say why man¬ 
ufacturers of implements do not advertise their wares. 
There is a three-horse clevis made which was figured in 
the Agriculturist some years ago, but which is patented ; 
we do not know the manufacturers’ address. Seeing the 
demand for such a clevis it would seem a judicious thing 
in the manufacturers to make their address known. 
Horses Hanging Back.- “B. C.” 
It depends altogether upon the shape of the double tree 
Whether the horse which hangs back does the same work 
as the one ahead, or more work or less. It may very 
easily be that he does more work instead of less. The 
proper method is to keep the horses even in the traces 
and then both work alike. Bad driving or bad matching 
is usually the cause of the horse hanging back. 
A Hew Spinning'-Wheel.—“ W. W.,” 
Bellsvllle, Mich. We can not say anything about the 
“Brice” spinning-wheel, not being acquainted with it. 
The spinning-wheel is not at all out of date ; it is one of 
those aids to a domestic manufacture which may very 
profitably find a place in the farmer’s home along with 
the knitting machine or the sewing machine, and fur¬ 
nish useful employment to his daughters, who ought not 
to be above adopting the industries which used to occupy 
their mothers and grandmothers. Every article of do¬ 
mestic use that can be made at home saves so much ex¬ 
penditure of money. 
Value of Chips and Bark.— “G. S. 
N.,” Moon, Pa. The chips and bark which accumulate 
around a saw-mill if partly rotted are valuable when 
plowed into the soil. We have found such matter a 
nuisance when spread upon grass land, but when 
spread thickly upon an orchard in which a crop 
of potatoes was planted, the potatoes were thickest and 
largest where there were the most chips. For nse upon 
grass land we would spread the stuff out to dry partly and 
then rake it into heaps and burn it to ashes, spreading 
them upon the surface. In this way it would be very val¬ 
uable, and if from hard wood would pay to haul it. 
Harrowing; Wheat.- “E. B.,” Wash¬ 
ington Co., Pa. It would not be always safe to harrow 
wheat amongst which timothy seed has been sown. 
Clover seed may bo sown after the snow has disappeared 
and when the ground is full of small cracks made by a 
light frost. The seed will fall into these cracks, and as 
the soil thaws it will be covered up lightly. 
EEiF’ See Pages 73 and 74. 
Temperature lor Setting; Milk.— 
“ A Subscriber,” Decatur, Nebraska. Although the tem¬ 
perature of a spring may be 50° yet it maybe so managed 
that the temperature of the milk set in it may be kept at 
about 60°. This is the best temperature for raising the 
cream as well as for keeping it. The supply of water 
should be so regulated as to keep the milk at 60°. At 
50° the cream will rise more slowly than at the higher 
temperature, and the butter will neither be" so good in 
flavor nor color. A good plan of regulating the supply of 
water would be to bring it in a small pipe into the reser¬ 
voir, through which it passes in a gentle current, keeping 
the temperature about 60° to 62°. 
Steamiug Feed.— “A. S. T.,” Howard 
Center, Pa. There is no better steam chest known to us 
than that figured in the Agriculturist of January, 1873. 
The best boiler is either a “ steamer,” of which there are 
several very useful kinds, or an engine boiler. A sheet- 
iron bottomed plank steamer is not safe or economical in 
space or fuel. It is better to build the steam room at a 
distance of at least 100 feet from the bam, and carry the 
steam in a cast iron pipe or boxed wooden logs made 
very tight at the joints. A wooden trough can not be 
made tight enough for economy. For pigs the method of 
cooking described in the Agriculturist of January, 1S74, is 
the cheapest and easiest. 
Roofing- Material. — “J. E. B.,” Gran¬ 
ville, Ill. Where pine shingles can be procured for $4 
per M. they are certainly the best and cheapest roof pos¬ 
sible excepting perhaps slates. Other roofing materials 
are intended as substitutes for shingles or for roofs of 
low pitch, in which cases they become the best material. 
Book by Prof. Winchell.—“ Anna L. 
J.” The work you probably refer to is Winchell’s 
“ Sketches of Creation,” price $2. 
Caring for Skeep on Shares.— “A. 
S. T.,” Howard County, Pa. For a hilly, exposed coun¬ 
try where the feed is good, our native sheep crossed with 
the Cotswold would produce a superior race, probably 
better than any other cross, the Cotswold being hardy and 
used to a hilly country. The usual terms for caring for 
a flock of sheep is half the net increase, losses being 
made up, and half the wool. 
Grinding’ Bones. —“ J. S.,” Ithaca, N. Y. 
The grinding of bones requires very strong machinery 
and considerable power. The attrition consequent upon 
putting them inside of a revolving iron cylinder would 
certainly eventually reduce them to powder, but the pro¬ 
cess would be exceedingly slow and costly, and practi¬ 
cally impossible. A good bone-mill is the only profitable 
method of reducing them to powder or fragments. 
Three Things for Congress to do. 
—If the members of congress are wise they will see the 
cloud that is now much larger than several men’s hands, 
and shape their course accordingly. It is a safe pre¬ 
diction that in the next congress the agricultural por¬ 
tion of the country will be more largely represented 
than ever before, if indeed it be not the controlling ele¬ 
ment. If the present congress wishes to be in favor with 
the people we can suggest three minor things which will 
tend to that end. 1st. So amend or reenact, or somehow 
fix the present postal law so far as it relates to the send¬ 
ing of seeds, plants, and the like, that no “rulings” of 
the department or perversity of individual postmasters 
will practically deprive the people of the benefits of the 
law. 2d. To abolish the duties on all plants and trees 
and arrange for their rapid passage through the custom¬ 
house. As matters now arc three fourths of the plants 
are lost by the delays at the custom-house, and the pres¬ 
ent arrangement amounts to prohibition to all save deal¬ 
ers. For instance, the writer had sent him a box of 
mainly wild plants from England. The contents were 
appraised at $70 in gold, when in fact they had no com¬ 
mercial value whatever, not a florist in the country would 
have given $5 for the lot. Still they were appraised by 
some one who probably never before saw or heard of a.sin- 
gleplant in the lotat $70, and we were charged 20percent 
in gold on that sum. In another instance a friend in 
France sent ns a box of canna roots which were delayed 
so long that every root died and yet the charges were $11. 
We give these bits of personal experience as illustra¬ 
tions of matters concerning which we have frequent com¬ 
plaint. A friend in Illinois had cuttings sent him of all 
the willows in the royal gardens at Kew. These were 
given by the British government, and the introduction of 
some of them may be of great benefit to the country, es¬ 
pecially to the West, yet our friend had to pay over $20 
for the privilege of getting them into the country. Our 
3d item is the Department of Agriculture, which is in 
many respects a fraud and a nuisance. Some of the pa- 
pers are for economizing by cutting it off altogether. 
We do not agree with these. We insist that the depart¬ 
ment has not yet had a fair chance. It in the first place 
r.ceds a head, and in the second place ample funds for an 
intelligent head to carry out the most liberal plans with¬ 
out interference by congressmen in demanding places 
for friends or seeds for their constituents. If a fair trial 
of the department under these conditions is without ben¬ 
eficial results then it will be time to shut up shop. The 
congressmen who will start and push through these and 
other reforms having a direct bearing upon the agricul¬ 
tural community will be wise. 
Emigration to Kansas.- The state¬ 
ment to which a correspondent alludes, to the effect that 
“hundreds of emigrants were returning from along the 
line of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in 
the Arkansas valley of iCansas, disappointed with the 
country,” was published in a Western paper aslie states. 
In the next issue of that paper the statement was cir¬ 
cumstantially denied, with an apologetic explanation. 
We arc the more concerned with this matter because of 
the report made by one of the editors of the Agriculturist 
in which this district was favorably spoken of. Realiz¬ 
ing at the time the responsibility attaching to such a re¬ 
port, made more for the interest of our readers and the 
public than for any other reason, it was made only after 
thorough personal examination and deliberate judgment. 
It would be well for those interested to proenre a copy 
of the whole report, which they may do by applying to 
Mr. A. E. Touzalin, Topeka, Kansas, that they may have 
a clear idea of the whole matter and form their judgment 
accordingly. This would be the more judicious, as the 
report in a measure will apply to the whole of that part 
of the country lying immediately west of the Missonri 
river and north into Nebraska, upon the lines of the Bur¬ 
lington and Missouri and the Union Pacific Railroads. 
The only point of difference being that the Arkansas 
Valley possesses, in the judgment of the person who made 
the report referred to, some advantages which the other 
localities do not. This may, however, be a matter of 
taste with some persons, who would choose a more 
northern locality, equally fertile, in the State of Ne¬ 
braska, and where general farming may be carried on 
with equal comfort and success. As a strong corrobora¬ 
tion of the truthfulness of the report we may state that 
the entries of United States land the past season in the 
Wichita and Salina United States land ofiices (the Arkan¬ 
sas Valley district) have amounted to 500,000 acres, and 
that the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad have 
sold during the same period, and since May, 1873, the 
following quantities of land, viz.: in June S,27S acres, in 
July 9,638 acres, in August 12,547 acres, in September 
19,163 acres, and in October 23,676 acres, at an average 
price of $5 to $G per acre. This docs not look as though 
there were many disappointed persons taking a back 
track. On the contrary,we have letters from parties who 
have settled there expressing themselves well satisfied 
with their present success and future prospects, and 
with the abundant fertility and great healthfulness of 
the country. 
©titer “Basket” Items will be found 
on page 75. 
Going; 'West.— “D. M. C.,” Independence, 
Iowa. It is useless to blind one’s eyes to the fact that a 
vast emigration is going westward. At the same time 
every weBtward-bound man leaves a successor in his 
place in the east. It is the natural expansion which has 
ever been at work in this country since the first emi¬ 
grants landed. It is impossible to stop it; it is the wisest 
course to direct rather than to stem the current. A dozen 
years or so ago your own state was peopled in exactly 
the same way. Now Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Col¬ 
orado, and other states are filling up. To tell an Ameri¬ 
can farmer to stay where he is or his boys to remain with 
the old folks is to tell them to do something they will not 
do, and it is labor lost. There are a few who go to sea 
and return more contented with their old homes, but 
they are a very small minority. The railroads are the 
effect, not the cause of this western emigration, and the 
new settlers are by far more greatly benefited by the 
roads at present than the roads by the settlers. At first 
there are hardships and disappointments for both, but by 
and by as in Iowa and Illinois, both become profitably 
established. 
Books Hoticed, 
Star Papers, by Henry Ward Beecher: J. B. Ford 
& Co., New York.—This, like several other volumes in 
this list, has been on hand for some time waiting until 
we could find space to notice it. Fortunately it is one of 
those books that do not lose their freshness. Most of 
the articles were written twenty years ago, and they will 
be just as bright twenty years to come. This volume 
