1868.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
359 
The Department ot" Agriculture. 
—“F. B. W.” asks us to advise our readers to petition 
Congress to abolish the Department of Agriculture. Not 
yet, Mr. W. The present Commissioner is quite desirous 
of working for the good of farmers, if they will through 
their associations indicate what they would have him to 
do. lie had not been long in place before he discharged 
a lot of nobodies and shut up the seed-shop, for which he 
deserves much credit. The only charge our correspond¬ 
ent makes against the Department is that the publica¬ 
tions are expensive and are unequally distributed. The 
reports are really accessible to every farmer, as all 
Agricultural Societies can have them, and every farmer 
should be a member of such an organization. The sum 
appropriated to the Department is not large, and we do 
not deem its abolishment demanded on the score of 
economy. The promptness with which the Commissioner 
took steps to have the Texas cattle disease investigated 
shows that he intends to work for the fanning interest. 
--— *———■—-- —-- 
American Hay in England. 
Owing to the extreme drought, hay is very scarce and 
high in England, and some of our enterprising merchants 
have sent over a considerable number of bales from this 
country. Should there be no prejudice against American 
hay, and should it command the same price as the Eng¬ 
lish article, there can be no doubt that with the present 
premium on gold, hay would be sent in large quantities 
and with considerable profit to the shippers. The sub¬ 
ject has attracted considerable attention, and the most 
extravagant statements have been made in regard to the 
effect it would have on the price of our hay crop. It 
is doubtful whether the anticipation of extreme high 
prices will be realized. One of our foreign exchanges 
notices the sale by auction at Liverpool of foreign-grown 
hay. It says: “ The imports from Belgium realized from 
£5 15a. to £6 per ton, whilst those from the United 
States sold at from £4 10a. to £5 10a. On the same occa¬ 
sion English-grown was purchased at £7 per ton.” Beck¬ 
oning seven dollars to the pound, English hay is worth 
$19 per ton, and American hay $31.50 to 3S.50 per ton, say 
an average of $35 per ton,—a difference of $14 per ton in 
favor of English hay. Those who have based their cal¬ 
culations therefore on the price of English hay are likely 
to be disappointed. The Irish Farmers’ Gazette obtain¬ 
ed samples of the hay, and says: “The Belgian hay 
seems to be fully equal to the English sample, but decid¬ 
edly inferior to a well saved specimen of Irish hay with 
which we compared it. The American hay is extremely 
coarse—more like dried rushes than the produce of a 
meadow. One specimen is very inferior, and is certainly 
not equal in feeding value to good oaten straw. If the 
Americans can send us no better we need not appreheml 
much serious competition from them in the matter of 
fodder.” We can hardly believe that those engaged in 
this business could have committed the folly of sending 
an inferior article. It is more probable that good Timo¬ 
thy hay was sent, and those acquainted with English 
meadow hay can easily understand how coarse it would 
appear in comparison. If there is any reliance to be 
placed on the analyses which have been made, Timothy 
is the most nutritious of all grasses, and we should be 
surprised if the English horses do not pronounce a differ¬ 
ent verdict from that of the Farmers’ Gazette. We under¬ 
stand that the hay has been submitted to chemical analy¬ 
sis, and we shall know more about it in a few weeks. 
- ^ 4 ■■ ■a @ O*-- 
Tile Importance of Selecting - 
Good Cattle for Fattening in Winter.— In a 
paper on Stall-feeding read before the Limerick Farmers’ 
Club, by Mr. E. L. Hunt, he said: “ We often hear that 
stall-feeding does not pay, but if you only saw the de¬ 
scription of cattle that these farmers try to fatten, yon 
would not be surprised that they find the speculation a 
losing one. I am of opinion that the great qnestion of 
profit or loss is generally decided the day the selection is 
made of the beasts intended for fattening; also the condi¬ 
tion they are in when tied up. The proper time for doing 
so is the end of October, or early in November. Care 
must be taken to have them all housed before the wet or 
cold weather tells on them.”—There can l>e no doubt of 
the importance of paying great attention to the kind of 
cattle intended for fattening. The neglect of this is one 
reason Why farmers think that if an animal is allowed a 
liberal allowance of hay and meal, it will soon “ eat its 
head off.” With a well-bred grade Short-horn or Devon, 
the result would be very different. 
-- i n a^Be r » » 
Winter Fallows. 
The object of summer-fallowing land is—1st, To clean 
it; 2d, To give it rest; and 3d, To enrich it. It is un¬ 
necessary to say anything on the first point. We all un¬ 
derstand why and how summer-fallowing cleans land ; 
but we may not have as clear ideas of the advantages of 
allowing it to rest. The growth and removal of plants 
necessarily impoverish the soil. Stopping plants from 
growing by continually stirring the land prevents this 
exhaustion, but it is equally true that land rests when 
allowed to remain in pasture, and all the grass which 
grows is returned to it in the droppings of the animals. 
Strictly speaking, therefore, the real object of a summer 
fallow is to clean the land and to enrich it. Pulverizing 
the soil and exposing the particles to the atmosphere 
decomposes the organic matter and disintegrates the 
mineral matter, and thus renders available a certain quan¬ 
tity of plant-food, which before lay inert and unavailable. 
The old-fashioned system of summer-fallowing is now 
seldom practiced in this country or in Europe; but 
in England, on the heavy lands, the “bean fallow,” and 
on the light lands a turnip fallow have taken its place. In 
this country there are a few farmers who still plow their 
land three times in summer-fallowing for wheat,but of late 
years nearly all our summer fallows are plowed but once — 
say in June or July—and all that is afterwards done is 
to keep the surface clean by the use of the cultivator, etc. 
Our present object is not to advocate or reprobate this 
system, but we can see no reason why a winter fallow 
will not do nearly or quite as much good as such a sum¬ 
mer fallow. If the land was plowed early in the fall, 
many weeds would start, and could be destroyed by the 
use of the cultivator before winter sets in, or at all events 
they would be killed by a second plowing in the spring. 
We do not see, however, why land that is plowed in 
September or even the first of October could not be 
again plowed, should the weather permit, the latter part 
of November or often in December. It would then lie up 
rough and exposed to the ameliorating effects of the frost. 
In England, farmers appreciate a severe frost in making 
the land “turnup” better in the spring. Here, in the 
Northern and Eastern States at least, we are always sure 
of cold sufficient to freeze the soil, and it is evident 
that but few farmers avail themselves of the effect of 
frost in disintegrating and mellowing their arable land. 
If they did, winter fallows would be more common. 
—-- -——— Or—--- 
Cider Making. 
Portable cider-mills that can be worked by hand are 
very convenient and useful, when there are but few cider- 
apples to be worked up. It often happens that a farmer 
has a few bushels of apples that will not keep till the 
time of making the main crop into cider, and in this case 
a portable cider-mill will enable him to use them to ad¬ 
vantage; but when there are several hundred bushels of 
apples ready at one time, the old-fashioned custom of 
taking a load of apples and straw to the nearest cider- 
mill is the pleasanter, and we believe the more profitable 
plan. It is a kind of holiday for the boys. The apples 
are‘allowed to hang on the tree as long as the wind and 
frosty nights will let them. The riper they are, the better 
the cider. They are picked up and placed in a large 
heap, either in the orchard or at the cider-mill, and are 
allowed to lie a few days to complete the ripening process, 
in which the starch is converted into sugar. They 
are then rasped or ground into pulp. If the weather is 
cool and the apples not quite ripe, it is better to let the 
pulp remain in the vat a few days before pressing out the 
juice. Thisgives the cidera higher color, makes itsweet- 
er, and of better flavor. The process of pressing is sim¬ 
ple, but requires some skill. Four boards about six inch¬ 
es wide are nailed together in a square, the size it is de¬ 
sired to make the cheese, say from four to five feet. This 
is placed on the bottom of the press, and a little clean 
rye or wheat straw, pulled out straight into bundles, is 
put inside with the ends extending about a foot all around. 
The pulp is then put into this rim forming a layer about 
six inches thick; the straw is then turned on it, and a lit¬ 
tle pulp placed on the straw to keep it down. The rim 
is then lifted and a stick is placed at eacli comer on the 
layer of pulp for the rim to rest on; some more straw is 
then placed all around, and another layer of pulp added 
and the straw turned over it as before. This process is 
repeated until the cheese is as large as desired, using say 
from seventy-five to a hundred bushels of apples. 
The cider will commence to flow at once, and it is bet¬ 
ter to let the cheese settle down somewhat before turning 
the screw. If pressed too much at first, the pulp may 
burst out at the sides. The cheese is generally allowed 
to remain under the press all night, and before leaving in 
the evening, the screw i6 turned as tight as possible. In 
the morning additional pressure is given, and when the 
cider has leased to flow, the screw is turned back, the 
boards taken off, and the corners of the cheese are cut 
off with a hay knife and the pomace laid on the top. The 
pressure is again applied, and the cider will flow freely. 
As soon as it ceases, remove the pressure and cut off four 
or five inches of pomace from the sides of the cheese, 
place it on top, and apply the pressure again as long as 
any cider will flow. Eight bushels of good apples will 
make a barrel of cider. The cider is usually put in bar¬ 
rels at once and sold while sweet. 
Strictly speaking, we suppose the sweet juice of the 
applo is not cider, any more than the sweet juice of tha 
grape is wine. It is converted into cider by fermenta¬ 
tion. Those who prefer sweet cider resort to various 
methods for arresting this process, such as putting a 
handful of powdered clay into each barrel, or two or three 
pounds of well-burned charcoal. Others add a little mus¬ 
tard seed. Sometimes a few gallons of cider are placed 
in the barrel, and then a rag dipped in brimstone is at¬ 
tached to a long tapering bung; this is ignited and the 
bung loosely inserted. After the brimstone iscensumed, 
the barrel is rolled until the cider has absorbed the sul¬ 
phurous acid gas. The barrel is then filled up witli cider. 
The sulphurous acid gas acting on the albuminous matter 
in the cider arrests fermentation. The objection to this 
method is that if too much gas is absorbed, it may prove 
unpleasant if not injurious. To obviate this, sulphite 
of lime is now used, which has the property of check¬ 
ing fermentation. We have tasted cider preserved in 
this way that was excellent, and we have also tasted 
some that was execrable. It is not an easy matter to keep 
cider sweet and pure for any length of time, especially if 
the weather is warm. If the cider is not made until just 
before winter sets in, and can afterwards be kept at or 
near the freezing point, it will remain sweet and excellent. 
To make good fermented cider that will keep a year or 
more without turning too sour to boused for anything 
but vinegar is not a difficult matter. The first thing is 
to exclude all decayed fruit, but it should be quite ripe. 
Not a drop of water should be used in the process of 
manufacture. The sweeter the juice, the stronger the 
cider, and the better it will keep. Put the barrel imme¬ 
diately in a cool cellar — the cooler the better. The fer¬ 
mentation may go on slowly or rapidly, practice differing 
in this respect. In the former case the liquid is treatod 
in all respects like wine. The cask has a bung in which 
is fixed air-tight a tin tube bent at right angles, ora piece 
of India-rubber tube. The free end of the tube in either 
case dips into a vessel of water. This arrangement al¬ 
lows the gases liberated in fermentation to pass out, and 
the end of the tube being covered with water, air cannot 
pass in. The bubbling of the gas through the water 
shows how the fermentation is progressing. When this 
has ceased, the cider is racked off into clean casks, which 
are to be full and bunged tightly. The following treat¬ 
ment is communicated by an English friend, which he 
assures us is attended with good results. Most readers 
would probably prefer their cider and beefsteak separate. 
“ Put into the barrel of cider five or six pounds of loaf 
sugar, and a pound of raw, lean beefsteak. Let the bung 
be open; keep the barrel full, so that, as fermentation 
takes place, the scum thrown to the surface may run off 
through the bung. Some cider should be reserved to be 
added every day or so, to supply the waste of fermenta¬ 
tion. When all the scum is thus worked off, bung up 
the barrel tightly and place a few - handfuls of wet sand 
on the bung, pressed firmly to exclude the air.” 
Seeding with "Weeds. 
Cleanness of the soil depends more upon the 
treatment -which cultivated crops receive in the 
latter part of the summer, than upon any thing 
else. Foul land is one of the great evils of our 
system of farming. It not only greatly increases 
the expense of cultivation, and diminishes the 
crops, but it gives us foul grain and grass seeds, 
and thus the evil is perpetuated. It is easy to 
keep Indian corn and all the larger seeds clean, 
but it is almost impossible to get grass seed clean 
by any other process than clean cultivation, 
while the land is under the plow. Whatever 
grows in the meadow is cut with the grass, and 
the seeds are hopelessly mixed. Much of tho 
grain that is sold for seeding has chess or other 
foul stuff in it, and nothing is more common 
than to find daisies or white weed, dock and 
thistles, mixed in with the timothy, red top, and 
clover that we buy at the stores for pure seed. 
Such sales are a fraud upon the public, whether 
the man who raises the seed designs it or not. 
Few farmers have the means of detecting the 
cheat until the weeds come up, and bloom with 
the grasses in their meadows. Then it is quite 
manifest that “ an enemy hath done this ”; and 
he is none the less an enemy because he bore 
his neighbor no personal ill will. It is a sad 
sight in riding through the country to see so 
