18 
AMEBICAN AGBICULTUBIST. 
[January, 
finely ground, and in winter two parts of corn- 
meal with one part of the cake meal. When 
fed alone the cake meal has been found to con¬ 
tain too large a proportion of nitrogenous mat¬ 
ter for the health of either cattle or sheep, but 
when mixed in the above proportions the corn 
helps to dilute the cotton-seed and render it 
digestible and healthful. For sheep a daily 
feed, of half a pound per day, has been found 
very useful, especially when a flock is pastured 
upon dry, poor pastures; but it is very 
necessary that an abundant supply of drinking- 
water be provided for them. 
"What Crops Leave in the Soil. 
Amid the weariness of all that is written 
about what crops take from the soil, of how 
they rob it of the ability to produce succeeding 
crops, it will be a relief to look at the other 
side of the question and consider what they 
leave in the soil, and how they add to its fu¬ 
ture producing power. 
The following is a statement of the results 
of instructive experiments made in 1869 at tire 
experimental agricultural station of Proskau, 
in Germany, by Doctors Weiske & Werner. 
They selected given areas in different places in 
each of several fields in which various crops 
had been grown. These they dug out to the 
depth of ten inches, carefully washing out the 
soil, and weighing and analyzing the stubble 
and roots remaining. The following table 
shows the figures, calculated in English pounds, 
per English acre: 
STUBBLE AND ROOTS REMAINING AFTER HARVEST. 
’t? 
5 K 
.A P 
«*60 
e-X 
O 
1 
OtSQ 
9702 
8498 
1204 
137 
37 
40 
7020 
1927 
193 
124 
S2 
75 
30 
15 
4925 
1027 
48 
3.234 
2560 
57 
ii 
2203 
52S3 
1736 
467 
48 
9 
11 
3630 
1653 
66 
32 
26 
2396 
1094 
24 
19 
12 
30 
3792 
2343 
1449 
27 
25 
Barley. 
1999 
1617 
3S2 
23 
10 
12 
These figures, relating to a single experi¬ 
ment, are, of course, of only general value; 
at the same time they are, in a general way, 
very useful. They show, for instance, that the 
more delicate-rooted grain crops leave com¬ 
paratively little residue in the soil—barley less 
than “/5 as much as rye, and only about 1 / 5 as 
much as red clover, which, in return for its 
few quarts of seed, after having yielded an 
abundant crop, leaves for the enriching of the 
soil about 4 l /o tons of root and stubble. Nor 
is the total amount of material left in the soil 
of more consequence than the quantity of par¬ 
ticular elements ? Red clover leaves 193 lbs. 
of nitrogen, while wheat leaves only 24 lbs. 
The former leaves more than four times as 
much potash and more than six times as much 
phosphoric acid as the latter. 
These comparisons sufficiently explain the 
great and well-known value of clover as a 
preparatory crop for wheat and for all other 
crops which are not manured with nitrogen, 
potash, and phosphates. In the field on which 
this examination was made, the clover of an 
acre left nitrogen enough for 116 bushels of 
wheat, phosphoric acid enough for 114 bushels, 
and potash enough for 73 bushels. It should 
be remembered, too, that most of this material 
is left in the best possible condition for use—as 
a part of readily decaying roots well distributed 
through the soil and penetrating it to a consid¬ 
erable depth. Indeed, particularly in the case 
of the clover, there would be a very consider¬ 
able amount of root below the ten inches, to 
which only the investigation was carried. 
Whether (as is unknown) the nitrogen of the 
clover comes wholly or partly from the soil or 
from the air, it is certainly taken from a condi¬ 
tion in which it is of little use to most crops, 
and is converted to an available one; so that, 
practically, the clover is a creator of nitrogen 
in the soil, as it is an efficient purveyor of its 
latent supplies of potash and phosphoric acid. 
Root crops were not included in the examina¬ 
tion, but it is well known that they leave in the 
soil only a feu- fibrous roots, which can add 
but little to its stock of fertility; and experi¬ 
ence teaches that, of all our crops, roots (un¬ 
less fed off upon the land) are the most ex¬ 
hausting. A corresponding result would be 
found to obtain in the case of Indian corn. In 
fact, the value of any crop to the crop which 
follows it is found in practice to be very nearly 
what the above table would indicate, except in 
the case of oats, which injure the soil by me¬ 
chanical action, their roots “ clodding ” the 
ground into lumps. This crop is more dele¬ 
terious than barley, although leaving more 
residuum in the soil. 
A Cover for Corn-Cribs. 
It is not probable that corn will long remain 
at its present low price. It may soon be the 
case that it will be worth caring for and pre¬ 
serving from the weather. A vast quantity is 
destroyed or badly damaged by being exposed 
in open cribs to the rains and snows of the 
winter and spring. A simple and very cheap 
method of protecting the log or rail crib in 
common use in the Western States occurred to 
us as we saw hundreds of them filled with corn 
soaking in the heavy rains of last spring. We 
would take two boards six feet long and fasten 
them together at the end by leather or iron 
strap hinges, as shown in the engraving (fig. 1 ). 
These should then be laid across the corn, 
which is to be heaped up into the center of the 
crib; as many pairs of these boards being used 
Fig. 2.— COVES EOS CORN-CRIB. 
as may be necessary for the length of the crib, 
or two pairs for each length of boards,whether 
that be IS feet, or 16 feet, or less. Then boards 
are tacked lengthwise of the crib, upon those 
hinged together, and which serve the purpose 
of rafters, commencing at the lower part, and 
making each board overlap the preceding one 
two inches or thereabouts. The nails should 
be only partly driven in, leaving the head pro¬ 
jecting a little, so that when the cover is to be 
taken away the nails are easily drawn out with 
a claw-hammer. Figure 2 shows a log-crib 
covered in this manner. It will, of course, be 
necessary to stay the cover by some means so 
that it may not be blown off by heavy winds. 
•--»-«— ■ o———■ «. 
Timber Tongs. 
The annexed engraving represents an imple¬ 
ment for handling heavy timbers, or by alter¬ 
ing the shape somewhat it may be made very 
TIMBER TONGS. 
useful in picking up large stones which might 
otherwise be difficult to handle. It should be 
made of three-quarter inch iron bar flattened 
out where the tongs are pivoted together and 
also at the jaws. The points of the jaws 
should be steeled, and brought to a sharp flat 
point beveled on the lower side, so as to grip 
the timber or stone without slipping. Two 
pairs of these tongs would be found very useful 
on a farm for picking up and carrying fence- 
posts, timber, or stone, or in taking hold of old 
posts when they are to be drawn out of the 
ground. For use in saw-mills they will be 
found especially handy, and those of our read¬ 
ers who are engaged in country saw-mills will 
find them, once used, to be indispensable. 
Steam on the Canal. 
So far as engineering difficulties are con¬ 
cerned the experiments of steam carriage upon 
the Erie Canal have been crowned with suc¬ 
cess. It only remains now to adapt the capa¬ 
city of the canal to the new method of propel¬ 
ling canal boats, and make such changes as 
shall permit the new system to become inau¬ 
gurated without interference with old and con¬ 
flicting interests, to immediately increase four¬ 
fold the usefulness of this outlet for the pro¬ 
ducts of the "West. As it has been found as 
the result of the recent experiments that a 
steam-propelled boat can make the trip in half 
the time required for a horse boat, and that the 
cost per day is reduced one-half, it is very clear 
that the usefulness of the canal is quadrupled. 
The City of Sew York is the name of the new 
boat which has accomplished this result. She is 
98 ft. long by 17 ft. 4 in. in width and 9 ft. 9 in. 
depth of hold, and carries 220 tons or 7,000 
bushels of grain. She has an engine of the 
best modem construction, and her consump¬ 
tion of coal is only 17 pounds for each mile 
traversed. Her trial trip from Buffalo to New 
York occupied less than eight days, with 36 
hours lost by detentions exclusive of time 
spent in the locks. Her speed for the entire 
trip was over 34 miles per hour, or more than 
double that of the ordinary boat. The cost of 
her trip amounted to 174 cents per mile, which 
is about half that of the present horse boat. 
There are also other items of saving of elxpense. 
