THJC CULTIVATOR. 
hints on the subject might be serviceable to some. It is important 
that the external appearance of a lot of wool should be good, as 
well as any other article intended for market; for besides the ad¬ 
vantage of a little advance in price, we have the satisfaction of pro¬ 
ducing an article that displays neatness and skill. After sheep are 
well washed, they should be kept in a clean pasture till the harsh¬ 
ness produced by washing is overcome ; eight or ten days is suffi¬ 
cient in dry weather, but wet will require a longer time. Fleeces 
cannot he made to appear well, unless they are taken off without 
being torn, and to effect this, a careful attention to the comfort of 
the sheep should be observed, which will of course have a tendency 
to keep them from struggling. I approve of-a scaffold 18 or 20 
inches h'gh, made of planed boards, on which I set the sheep, 
shearing the left side first, parting the wool from one flank to the 
other, and shaving towards the back; then turn the sheep round 
and shear from the back, taking off the belly as I go down; in this 
way the fleece is kept all the time out of reach of their feet, and 
may be kept whole as when on the sheep. The fleece should then 
be doubled so as to have the shoulders appear on the outside, and 
the fleece when rolled, should not be more than from 10 to 15 
inches in length. It should be rolled very tight, and the I-nee 
placed on it till the cord is drawn under and tied. It is often ne¬ 
cessary to wind the cord once around on each side, half way from 
the middle to the end, but never should be carried in a contrary 
direction around the ends, unless the fleece is very much torn.— 
Cotton cord should not be used; and wool should not be put into 
sacks that have had cotton in them, as whatever partic ! es of it may 
chance to adhe;e to the wool, will in dying take a different color, 
and give the manufacturer the trouble of picking them out of the 
cloth. Shears should be ground to an edge on the back, from the 
points up about two inches; this will be found to be a great im¬ 
provement, as they will enter the wool much easier. 
J. Buel, Esq. DANIEL S. CURTIS. 
VALUE OF FRUIT. 
Good fruit will be admitted by all, to be one of the almost in¬ 
dispensable comforts of life. Then why do so many farmers ne¬ 
glect to procure it—when, with a little pleasure , (I will not call 
it trouble,) in grafting and inoculating, it could be so easily ef¬ 
fected ? Many farmers live, or rather, get along, from year to 
year, without making any effort to accomplish so desirable an ob¬ 
ject. To such, these remarks are directed, (for to none others 
would they apply,) in order to stimulate them to action. And as 
this month is the season for transplanting fruit trees, I presume 
none will neglect to obtain a supply, and those of the most ap¬ 
proved kinds. We should always be well provided with young 
trees, particularly the peach, as this is a short lived tree at long¬ 
est, that, as the old ones decay, we may replace them, and thus 
keep our stock good. I have noticed with regret, that many peach 
orchards are suffered to decay, and some have entirely disappear¬ 
ed, without a single effort of the proprietors to replenish them. 
Surely so delicious a fruit is worth paying the utmost attention to. 
What incalculable benefit may be derived from a little attention 
—for instance, if a farmer spend one day in grafting, one in ino¬ 
culating, another in transplanting fruit trees—how is he rewarded 
ten-fold for his labor in beholding his efforts crowned with suc¬ 
cess—to say nothing of the profits and enjoyments to be derived 
therefrom? I am inclined to believe, that an orchard of well se¬ 
lected fruit, where we are not contiguous to a good market for it, 
might be made profitable in fattening our pork. If farmers would 
keep an accurate account of the expense of fattening their pork, 
in the usual method of feeding corn, I think they would readily 
find that they were losing money. Hence the necessity of devis¬ 
ing some cheaper method. I purpose to make an experiment with 
boiled apples, mixed with a given quantity of meal. Will some 
other farmers make some experiments of this kind, and commu¬ 
nicate the result. Respectfully, GEO. WILLETS. 
Skaneateles, Oonndaga county, 1835. 
Albany, 16 th April, 1835. 
J. Buel, Esq.—Dear Sir—In an early number of the Cultiva¬ 
tor, vol. 1, p. 63, you inserted a short account of my growing tares 
and turnips as food for stock. Last season I raised both of them 
again ; the tares were an abundant crop, as to herbage, but like 
those of the preceding year, promised to yield but little seed, so 
I had them mowed and made into hay. The produce of seed is 
45 
so small, as to render the continued cultivation of them impracti¬ 
cable. How they might succeed in other parts of the U. States, 
I cannot tell; but the same difficulty had been found by Mr. Li¬ 
vingston, several years ago, as is stated in Nicholson’s Farmers’ 
Assistant. 
For the Swedish turnips, or ruta baga, I had seven acres of land 
which had borne a crop of oats the preceding summer, and had 
been ploughed as soon as possible after they were carted off. This 
was ploughed and harrowed till clean, and the seed was drilled in 
rows at 22 inches distance, at different times, from the 24th June 
to the 8th July, as the land could be got ready. They were hoed 
once over by 1st August, and a second time by the 30th. The 
great and unusual heat of the summer of 1834, hurt their growth 
very much, and rendered many of them unsound, so that the tops 
came off when pulled. The high parts of the field produced bet¬ 
ter turnips than the low, though these were all underdrained. From 
the 18th October to the 21st November, we were employed in pull¬ 
ing, drawing home and securing them. The produce from seven 
acres was less than that of the preceding year from five acres. I 
had only about 2500 bushels, and this I can attribute only to the 
extreme heat and drought of the season. I had them just as be¬ 
fore, in large piles, and by this means lost full half my crop, for 
the two seasons were entirely different. 
Your plan, as given in the Cultivator, vol. 1, p. 52, is the only 
safe one, and had I followed it, I should probably have saved more 
than 1000 bushels of turnips. In December they began to heat, 
and continued heating all through the severe month of January, 
till I lost half my crop nearly. The labor of covering such large 
piles is veiy great, and they ought by all means to be avoided. 
The Swedish turnip is a most valuable root, and grows well in the 
northern parts of the United States ; but as to its paying on a large 
scale, I have some doubts, but an acre or two must be of great 
service on any farm. All stock are fond of Swedish turnips, and 
thrive on them; cattle which have never tasted them before, eat 
them voraciously the first opportunity. Heavy sheep cannot be 
wintered without them, so as to be kept up to the mark, either in 
mutton or wool, for no quantity of grain can make up for the want 
of moist food, such as turnips, mangel wurtzel, &c. A large al¬ 
lowance of such food would probably be injurious to the quality 
of very fine wool, though it might add to the quantity. 
Yours truly, S. HAWES. 
. — -: "— L ~ L ..- !- 
Elements of PsswMieal Agriculture, 
By David Low, Professor of Agriculture, &c. 
PLOUGHING^ 
[The most common operations in husbandry are frequently the worst per¬ 
formed. Accustomed to them from boyhood, we acquire the habit of doing 
them mechanically, without scanning w ell their object, or investigating the 
principles upon which they ought to be conducted. Our ploughmen would 
think themselves insulted, if told they did not know how to plough their 
grounds well. And yet without intending to charge them with this defect 
of knowledge, we are free to say, we do not find hardly two fields in fifty, 
ploughed well. There are three principal objects that should be aimed at in 
ploughing:—1. To break up the whole surface of the field; 2. To give the 
greatest exposure of fresh earth to the atmosphere; and 3. To induce the 
greatest pulverization of soil. It is too much the practice to cut and cover, 
and to lay the furrow-slice flat, which neither gives the greatest exposure 
nor induces the best pulverization. We are persuaded, that what we are 
about to offer upon this subject, maybe read with advantage by even the 
best ploughmen, however trite and well understood the subject may appear. 
The principle illustrated in figure 6, is particularly important.] 
THE PLOUGH. 
By means of this instrument the earth is to be turned over to a 
given depth : and this is to be effected by cutting from the ground 
successive sods or slices of earth, so that each sod or slice shall 
be raised up and turned over, and all the sods or slices laid rest¬ 
ing upon each other, in such a manner as that an entire new sur¬ 
face shall be exposed to the atmosphere. 
In the following figures, let A B C D represent the end or trans¬ 
verse section of the slice of earth which is to be turned over. 
The slice is first to be raised from the position in which it lies 
in fig’. 1: it is next to be placed in the position shown in fig. 2: 
and it is finally to be placed in that represented in fig. 3. 
In the diagram, fig. 4, let A B C D, corresponding with the same 
letters in figs. 1, 2, 3, represent a transverse section of the slice 
of earth which is to be turned over. This slice is first to be raised 
from its horizontal position A B C D, by being turned upon its 
corner C as a pivot, and placed in the position C E F G, corres- 
