68 
THE CULTIVATOR 
Feb 
Superficial Farming. 
A prominent cause of small profits and poor success 
in many of our farmers, is the parsimonious application 
of capital, in manures, implements, physical force, and 
convenient buildings. In their eagerness to save at the 
tap, they waste freely at the bung. They remind us of 
the cultivator who candidly admitted his unprofitable 
system of farming; ‘‘but,” said he, “I am not yet 
rich enough to be economical.” We observe by a late 
number of the Mark-Lane Express, that the present me¬ 
dium estimate in England, of the capital required to carry 
on the business of a farm, is £8 (about 40 dollars) per 
acre, “ and no prudent man ought to rent more than he 
has that amount, at least, of available capital to go on 
with; for a smaller possession, with ample means to 
manage it, will yield better returns than a large quanti¬ 
ty of land inadequately stocked.” Now, some of our 
best farms can be bought for about the same sum that the 
English farms are rented , and if the above remark is ap¬ 
plied to purchasing, instead of renting, it will constitute 
excellent advice to Americans. This is a subject for a 
large volume; and we have only space now to say, that 
if the landowner has not suitable buildings, the value of 
the grain and fodder wasted in consequence, would soon 
pay for them; and the food and flesh wasted by exposed 
and shivering animals would soon pay for them a secqnd 
time. The want of manure will prevent the value of crops 
from rising higher than the cost of cultivating them; 
and the want of heavy crops, to feed animals, will pre¬ 
clude keeping enough to make plenty of manure. In 
other words, a poor and badly cultivated farm will re¬ 
act, and only support a poor and badly-fed race of ani¬ 
mals and men,—just in the same way that a fertile and 
thoroughly tilled piece of land will sustain animals 
enough to manure it and keep up its fertility, and men 
enough to give it thorough tillage. 
Successful Culture of Melons. 
Dr. Hull of Newburgh, N. Y., gives a statement of 
his method of culture in the Horticulturist. Holes two 
feet in diameter, and nearly two feet deep, dug in 
trenched ground , were filled, the lower half with equal 
parts clay loam and fresh manure, and the upper half 
with clay loam and old manure. Hills five inches high 
and four feet in diameter were then formed of equal 
parts of poudretted muck , (a barrel of Lodi poudrette 
to a cord of muck,) sand, and decomposed turf. The 
plants were started on inverted sods in a hot-bed. These 
hills were six feet apart from their centres, and the 
whole spaces between the centres were mulched with long 
litter. The bugs were completely expelled by watering 
the plants daily with a strong decoction of quassia— 
made by pouring four gallons of boiling water on four 
pounds of quassia in a barrel, and after 12 hours filling 
the barrel with water. The intolerable squash or pump¬ 
kin hug was thoroughly driven off by a decoction of 
double strength, containing a pound of glue to ten gal¬ 
lons, to make it adhere. 
The product of a piece of ground 40 by 180 feet, was 
sixteen hundred superb melons. It ought to be added, 
that if the ground is not trenched, the holes should be 
much larger; and where the soil is light instead of clayey, 
rotted or fine manure only, well mixed with the earth, 
should be used, to prevent injury by drouth. 
Importation of Hereford Cattle. 
Mr. Eeastus Corning Jr., of Albany, has recently 
imported a pair of Hereford cattle, purchased by him 
when in England, last season, of Rev. J. R. Smythies, 
of Lynch-Court, Herefordshire. The heifer is two years 
old, past, and the bull a year younger. The writer has 
had the pleasure of seeing these animals, and cannot re¬ 
frain from expressiag his gratification that so great an 
acquisition as they, in themselves are, has been made to 
the farming stock of the country. The heifer is a most 
perfect model of beauty, combined with the points which 
indicate constitution, thrift, fine quality of flesh, and 
weight of carcase with lightness of offal. Although 
just off a long voyage, at an inclement season of the 
year, she is in high condition, and her flesh was, we are 
assured, acquired by grass. The bull suffered more from 
the voyage, and is at an age to appear to the least ad¬ 
vantage ; but he has points which show that he will make 
a strong and valuable beast. The animals do credit to 
the character of the breed, the skill of the breeder, and 
the judgment of the persons who selected them. 
Mr. Smythies is a veteran breeder. More than thirty 
years ago, the writer was interested in reading his spir¬ 
ited articles, which appeared in the London Farmers’ 
Journal, in advocacy of his favorite Herefords. He has 
been a very successful competitor for the prizes of the 
Royal Agricultural Society, and of the Smithfield Club. 
The former association, in 1889, offered a prize of fifteen 
sovereigns for the cow “best calculated for dairy pur¬ 
poses”—the competition being open to all breeds in the 
kingdom. This prize was awarded to Mr. Smythies 
for a Hereford—a second prize being awarded to a Short¬ 
horn. This was the only occasion on which that society 
hasbrought the different breeds into competitionwith each 
other—The class alluded to having been from that time 
abolished. The shows of the Smithfield Club, are for 
fat cattle; here all breeders compete together, and the 
success of the Herefords is too well known to require 
details here. 
Mr. Smythies has offered several challenges to the 
breeders of Short-horns and other cattle, to test the 
merits of the several breeds, by actual trial, on a fair 
scale; but they have not been accepted. 
Mr. Corning has exhibited a commendableenterprize 
in the introduction of these fine animals, which with 
others of the same breed, previously in his possession, 
will enable him to produce stock of high value. S. II. 
A high Chimney. —A late paper states that one of 
the great chimneys built in Glasgow to carry off the 
smoke and create draft, belonging to the iron works of 
that city, lifts itself up to the enormous height of four 
hundred and seventy feet. 
Apples in Western New-York. —Moore’s New- 
Yorker states that notwithstanding the great defect in 
both quantity and quality of apples, the past season, the 
county of Monroe furnished but little short of 200,000 
bushels. 
