50 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
board at the foot of the bed. Ready for use 
these cost in money $1.25, and in labor enough 
to make the entire cost nearly equal the inter¬ 
est on glass for one year. In careful hands 
they will probably last three seasons. My own 
last two seasons and are used for weeks to¬ 
gether in the field for gathering turnip, let¬ 
tuce, and other dry seeds, and in the fall in dry¬ 
ing cucumber, tomato, and similar pulpy seeds. 
For use on the earliest beds in the short days 
of February, I prefer glass because it gathers 
heat quicker during the few hours of sunshine. 
If a week of cold, cloudy weather occurs in 
April, of course cloth covers have their disad¬ 
vantages, but I have never suffered an actual 
loss from them, while annually with such help 
as we are compelled to hire I lose something 
from the glass beds, and taken altogether I pre¬ 
fer cloth for most uses after the 10th of March. 
They do not gather heat so rapidly during the 
day as glass does, and hence there is less danger 
of burning or drawing plants, nor do they 
throw off heat so fast at night, and hence need 
less covering. Fitting tight to the frames they 
admit of no draughts, undergo no sudden 
changes, and suffer little from dampening off. 
They are safer than glass in inexperienced hands, 
and are handled and stored at less expense. 
Plants grown under such covers I am annu¬ 
ally selling in large amounts and shipping to 
other points where they are brought in compe¬ 
tition with plants grown entirely under glass, 
and I have never heard anything to their dis¬ 
paragement. They are of course equally as 
serviceable in the private garden as for com¬ 
mercial purposes. [Our space will not allow 
us to give Mr. Root’s method with tomato 
plaits; we can only state here that he sows 
the seed late in February in shallow boxes 
placed in a strong hot-bed, and to guard against 
accidents repeats the sowing every week or ten 
days. The details of his after treatment will 
be given next month.— Ed.] 
Watering Stock in Winter. 
We wish our readers would make the follow¬ 
ing simple experiment. You have a trough or 
half barrel into which you pump water for 
stock. There is more or less ice in the water. 
Your cows and sheep are drinking it. Put a 
thermometer in this water and you will proba¬ 
bly find that it is within a degree or two of the 
freezing point. Then pump up a pail of water, 
and if the pump has not been used for a few 
hours you will find (at least we did) that this 
water is also down to 33° or 34°. Now pump 
two or three more pailfuls of -water, or until 
you are sure you have drawn up all the water 
that has been standing in the pump and are 
now drawing it fresh from the well. Let the 
thermometer stand in this a few minutes and 
you will find that this water is not far from 
50°—or say from 15° to 20° warmer than the 
first drawn water or than that standing in the 
trough. In the summer, nearly every farmer 
when he wants drinking water will pump out 
the water that has been standing in the pump 
because he knows that it is warmer than the 
water in the well. We should do the same 
thing for our stock in winter, because this first 
drawn water is much colder than the water in 
the well. It has beer found very advantageous 
to artificially warm water for horses and cows. 
We can not all adopt such a plan, but we can 
take measures to give our animals water fresh 
and warm from the well. We can avoid com¬ 
pelling them to drink water in which ice has 
be^n floating for some hours. A cow drinks, 
or ought to drink, not less than 75 lbs. of water 
per day. This water has to be raised to the 
temperature of the body—say 100°. The heat 
required for this purpose is derived from the 
combustion of corn, hay, or other food. 
Those at the East think it a sad waste when 
they hear that Western farmers burn corn in 
their stoves to cook their food or warm their 
houses. Are they not more to blame for re¬ 
ducing all the water their animals drink from 
50° down to 32°, and then burning corn-meal 
to restore these 18° of heat ? 
Agassiz, 
Everywhere that papers are read is the death 
of Agassiz known, and those must be rare in¬ 
deed who have not perused some account of 
his life and labors. Some of the illustrated jour¬ 
nals have given portraits of the great naturalist, 
but they are so unlike Agassiz as we knew him 
before the illness of a few years ago caused him 
to suspend his labors for a long time, that but 
for the name below the pictures we could not 
guess for whom they were intended. Think¬ 
ing that many of our readers would like to see 
a representation of him as he appeared in full 
vigor, we have had an engraving made of a 
photograph for which Agassiz sat at the re¬ 
quest of the writer several years ago. 
Although not an agriculturist, his portrait 
properly finds a place in an agricultural paper, 
as, many-sided man that he was, he had a more 
profound knowledge of the principles upon 
which its successful following depends than 
many who devote themselves especially to 
agriculture. As a member of the Massachu¬ 
setts State Board of Agriculture he thoroughly 
identified himself with the farmers, and at 
its meetings, from -which he was never absent 
unless ill or upon some distant journey, he was 
ever ready to impart instruction, and by his en¬ 
thusiasm in regard to matters relating to agri¬ 
culture awaken alike enthusiasm in his hearers. 
It is not necessary here to speak of the scientific 
eminence of Agassiz nor of the great works 
upon which it rests, as these have been so re¬ 
cently recounted as to be fresh in the minds 
of all readers. Aside from the great popular 
respect in which he was held for his scientific 
labors, he was regarded by the people at large 
with a feeling of warm personal regard. Upon 
the lecture platform he had a singularly attrac¬ 
tive manner ; he made his subjects so plain, and 
adapted himself to the commonest compre¬ 
hension without appearance of “ talking down ” 
to his hearers. Indeed he would speak of 
things that were as familiar to him as the al¬ 
phabet with such enthusiasm that one would 
suppose they were the discoveries of the mo¬ 
ment and he was for the first time making 
them known. 
His popularity as a public lecturer was un¬ 
paralleled, but he found that lecturing in¬ 
terfered too much with his scientific work, and 
in later years seldom appeared outside of' his 
own lecture-room or the public meetings of 
the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture. Per¬ 
sonally, Agassiz was one of the most accessible 
and genial of men, making friends wherever 
he went and with all classes. Even the fisher¬ 
men, who are not given to admiring those out¬ 
side of their own craft, had a word of praise 
for Agassiz. A little personal incident may 
not be out of place, as showing something of 
the unassuming character of the man. Boon 
after Agassiz came to the country, the writer 
was with him at a large party given in his 
honor in a New England town in which he 
was giving some lectures. At the party 
Agassiz was as “beaming” and as interesting 
as one could be. We noticed that at the re¬ 
freshment-table he was very abstemious; and 
soon after this part of the entertainment was 
over, he intimated to us a desire to leave, and 
we quietly departed. No sooner had we fairly 
left the house than he began to hop, skip, and 
jump in a most astonishing manner. “ There, 
that is over,” he said ; “ n )w let us go and enjoy 
ourselves.” Oysters were suggested, and,though 
it was rather late, we found a place still open 
where we were soon seated over our oysters. 
Having been brought up in a place celebrated 
for its oysters, we supposed we knew something 
about them; but Agassiz soon convinced us 
that we had much to learn. The talk of that 
night will not be forgotten. He ran on in his 
own charming manner with the whole history of 
the oyster, from the “ spat ” to its full growth, 
the difference of oysters in other countries, the 
manner of their economical cultivation, the vari¬ 
ous parasites and enemies of the oyster and much 
more besides. Finding that the watch showed 
after one o’clock, we rose to retire, and 
found that the oysterman and his assistants 
were all standing around at a respectful 
distance, with eyes and mouth wide open, 
quite willing to be kept up to this unusual 
hour while this wonderful man discoursed. 
Agassiz’s memory was something remark¬ 
able, not only for scientific facts but for 
common names. He once said to the write]-, 
upon expressing surprise that he should re¬ 
member the names of persons whom he had 
seen but once, “ I never forget a name when I 
once know it.” 
However important his published works, the 
great museum which he founded, and the An¬ 
derson School of Natural History, the great 
and lasting influence of Agassiz will be found 
in the impulse he has given to the study of 
natural history in this country. When he first 
came among us naturalists were very few, 
only here and there one working by himself; 
now they are numerous and to be found in 
every state and territory. Falling in his 67th 
year, in the midst of his usefulness, his name 
will be honored in ail civilized countries. We 
could not do less than give this humble tribute 
of respect to his memory. 
Ogden Farm Papers.—No. 48. 
Coming home again, after three months’ ab¬ 
sence, I found things “ as well as could be ex¬ 
pected under the circumstances,” but circum¬ 
stances had not been favorable. The well 
from which the windmill forces water to the 
barn and to the dairy, and which has never 
failed before, though sometimes nearly dry, 
had this season to be sunk eight feet deeper, 
and went dry after all. The house well went 
so nearly dry as to give a very scant supply 
for the milk pool, and the brooks disappeared 
from the face of the earth—everything went 
dry except one stream more than two miles 
away. From this all the water used on the 
farm had to be hauled for weeks, and the vat 
in which the deep milk-cans are set, not having 
the fresh spring water for which it was intend¬ 
ed, had to be kept cool by the constant use of 
ice. Pastures were pinched down to the short¬ 
est bite, and the corn fodder on which we 
usually depend for almost the entire feed of 
the latter part of the season, and for an abun- 
