1808 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
443 
cows. He says: “We all have cows, but of an inferior 
kind, and no thoroughbred bull could be found in this 
parish, ' Point Coupee.’ Our object is to have cows 
Which will give rich milk in good quantity; and I would 
request you to inform me what breed would cover these 
points best in our warm climate, and at what probable 
price a 1 or 2-year-okl thoroughbred bull might be bought 
in the North and delivered in New Orleans.”—The Devon 
stock has been tested in warm latitudes, and is said to 
do well. We should think the Ayrshire also would do 
well, and their reputation as milkers is rather better than 
that of the Devons. Procure a bull of a good strain of 
blood, and the grades will be likely to meet your wants. 
!>ecltlBitoa»s nmsl Ever* 
green 'Trees and Shrubs, for planting in Parks, 
Gardens, Cemeteries, etc. By F. It. Elliott. New York, 
Francis W. Woodward. This is a hand-book of 125 
pages, in which are pointed out the leading characters, 
uses, etc., of those trees and shrubs most generally em¬ 
ployed in ornamental planting. So experienced a planter 
as Mr. Elliott could not fail to give much information 
which would be of service to the novice, who will find 
here just the practical points which most horticultural 
writers are apt to omit. As the work professes to be 
simply a guide in planting, it is not necessary to criticise 
its botany or its illustrations, which are equally good or 
equally bad—we are not quite sure which. Price $1.50. 
Sotl INrsices si.aad. IMtclkeg.— “G. W. 
M.” Sod fences and ditches turn cattle, but not sheep and 
goats well. They will stand the weather several years 
with very little repairs, if well made. 
44 Tree.”—H. II. Howard, Lake 
Co., Miss. Your “Pepper Tree” is Sclrinus tnolle, and 
belongs to the same family with the Sumachs. It is a 
native of Peru and other parts of South America, and is 
in common cultivation in warm countries. We hope to 
say more about it at another time. 
TTSsc Western ISesatiiSy Apple.—Mr. S. 
R. Bailey, Lima, O., has sent us specimens of this very 
large and fine apple. The tree is a very vigorous one, 
and the leaves remarkably large, being sometimes six 
inches long and half as broad. This fruit is supposed to 
have originated in Ohio. Warder gives it high praise, 
and places it among the best in quality. “Flavor sub¬ 
acid, vinous, delicious, satisfying,” describes the fruit as 
we found it. The season, September to Christmas, but 
it may be kept until March. 
SBaJsai’flsag' :i Vineyard.—J. R- Hoessli, 
Onondaga Co., N. Y., asks if the State has the right to 
raise the water in a lake to the injury of the drainage 
of his vineyard. This is a question in law, which does 
not fall within our province. 
Apple Meloua.—“C. S.,” Wilmington, Del. 
The melon you described is the Apple-seeded Water¬ 
melon. Thorburn and Bliss & Son, of this city have seeds. 
A. ®ir<tlle<il Elms.—'“ Diseonsolably Um¬ 
brageous,” Potsdam, N. Y., has a fine Elm which has 
been, by mistake, girdled with an axe, and he asks how to 
save it. ir the tree is a large one, we fear it is a hard 
case; still we should try, by bridging over the injury by 
means of pieces of elm, with the bark on, fitting them 
carefully, so that the new wood of the pieces and that of 
the tree will meet as nearly as possible. The parts where 
they join should be freshly cut, and the whole covered 
with a mixture of clay and cow dung, bound on with old 
cloths. The top should bo cutback severely, to diminish 
the evaporating surface. 
J - % 
Ci-aBalsoi’i’y ^aierfes.—“ M. K. B.,” Nor¬ 
folk, Mass. Spring is the best time to plant Cranberries. 
Eastwood’s is the only work we have on the subject. 
TPlac Trotting-Morse Amaerica. 
—This is the title of a very neat 12mo. volume, by Iliram 
Woodruff; edited by Mr. C. J. Foster; published by J. 
B. Ford & Co., New York. Hiram Woodruff was by far 
the most successful, widely known, and respected profes¬ 
sional trainer of trotting-horscs in this country. His 
familiarity with the most famous horses was life-long 
almost, and being possessed of a clear, quick, shrewd 
mind, and an uncommon degree of common sense, with 
a remarkable memory, his influence among horsemen 
was very great, and the present high character of*thc 
trotting horses of this country is in no small degree due 
to him. This book was written chiefly from “ Hiram’s” 
dictation. It was published in chapters in Wilkes’ Spirit 
of the Times, and now, as soon after the death of the 
famous trainer as possible, it is given to the public, and 
will be found of great interest to all who love a good 
horse. The first eleven chapters, together with others 
scattered through the book, arc chiefly instructive on 
handling, feeding, training, etc. Others are reminiscen¬ 
ces of the trotting turf, told in a very pleasant way. It 
contains 412 pages, with a portrait of the author, and will 
no doubt meet, and worthily, with a very extensive sale. 
B*o<stfag-c IS Cesals a. Year Ini Ail- 
vance.—The postage on the American Agriculturist 
anywhere in the United States and Territories, paid in 
advance , is 3 cents a quarter, 12 cents a year. If not paid 
in advance, twice those rates may be charged. 
Flower Sieeuls.—Some time ago we pub¬ 
lished a communication on flower culture, from Miss O. 
M. Luke, Ohio, which brought her a large correspondence. 
She wishes us to say that ill health prevents a reply to 
her letters, and that the flowers about which inquiry has 
been made were from seeds and bulbs obtained from J. 
M. Vick, the well-known seedsman, Rochester, N. Y. 
IPrwdSasvMe "Else of BAseseY.—“H. A. N.” 
wishes to know how he can use five acres of good land to 
the best advantage. He is one hour by rail from the city. 
This depends so much upon the man and his circum¬ 
stances, that we can give no very definite advice. If he 
lives upon the five acres, the best thing to be done is to 
make it tributary to the supply of the family and the do¬ 
mestic animals kept,—one or two horses, two cows, poul¬ 
try, pigs, etc. The horses and cows are best kept by 
soiling, about which much has been said in our past vol¬ 
umes. A half acre will be needed for a vegetable gar¬ 
den and small fruits, and another half for larger fruits. 
Ww-k ®sn tiBae ISorse.— “J. L. W.,” 
Providence, E. I., inquires for a work on the Horse,— 
one that treats the subject in a plain, practical way, and 
that is reliable as far as any book is in its statements. 
Herbert’s Hints to Horsekeepers will probably meet the 
wants of our correspondent as well as any book in the 
market. Price $1.75. The same if sent by mail. 
Mesa sam«l ffVonits.—In that most charm¬ 
ing and now almost forgotten “Fable for the Critics” 
of Lowell, ho takes off tiie literary men of his time, 
no describes Hawthorne as being made of particular¬ 
ly fine clay, and as old Dame Nature was at the 
task of mixing she sang, and somehow the music got 
mixed with the clay which resulted in Hawthorne. In 
looking over the fruits produced by our pomologists, we 
have thought sometimes that their qualities and peculiar¬ 
ities became in a similar way blended in their productions. 
To illustrate from strawberries. Who could have pro¬ 
duced such a plump, juicy, productive berry, with a good 
bit of spice in it, but just McAvoy himself? “ Downer’s 
Prolific ” and his later “ Charles Downing,” in their un¬ 
pretending, sterling, and reliable qualities typify our old 
friend Downer of Kentucky ; and the latest candidate, 
“ President Wilder,” considering its origin, could it be 
any other than the rich, polished, perfect fruit that it is ? 
Of course there is nothing in it—a fancy—nothing more. 
Ana Eg-gf oi* Two, on* si Pooir Cigar, 
cadi Week, costs more than the subscription price 
of this journal, with all of its fine engravings, its calen¬ 
dar of hints, its many items of information given in 
the “ Basket” columns, and in its farm, garden, house¬ 
hold, and children’s departments I 
'Flae 46 Sheaves* Mismbiii'c 99 BSsiEEilsEig. 
—One Palmer, of Dutchess Co., N. Y., issues a very 
shrewd circular, well calculated to deceive even pretty 
well read farmers. He claims to have a secret, and a 
secret leaven for making manure, and we believe also a 
secret manure. He sells, or wants to sell, “ Rights” for 
$25, and to all who take them he proposes to furnish a 
book of 200 pages, which is to be published “as soon as 
circumstances permit,” which will tell where and how 
he obtained the leaven, and many other things. Besides, 
a receipt book of 24 pages is furnished, and the dupe will 
be told also how to make guano “powerful yet harmless,” 
how to make poudrettc, bone-dust, chloride of lime, 
a substitute for plaster, etc., etc. Finally, Mr. Palmer 
wishes to engage those who give him $25, to help him in 
his real estate and stock brokerage speculations. This 
man is no fool, though if we did not. know to the con¬ 
trary, we should say he were next to one, to expect a sin¬ 
gle sane man to pay him $25 for the right to allow him 
(Palmer) to furnish him a book by and by. We have little 
doubt many a dupe will be found, and some, perhaps, will 
think that their $25 is well spent. Palmer has probably 
been reading that little pamphlet now issued by the pub¬ 
lishers of the American Agriculturist , called “Bommer’s 
Method,” which probably covers almost exactly the 
same ground. The circular about the Leaven is so 
full of chemical and other blunders, that they appear to 
us to bo willful misstatements. It is endorsed by a dozen 
or more certificates of people whom we do not know, but 
who may be very honest, good farmers ; and the same 
may be obtained by any deceiver, if the trial samples of 
the manure ho were to furnish were really good. Let 
secret things alone, as a rule ; where there is real merit, 
there is no need of secrecy to make a thing go. “Bom¬ 
mer’s Method” costs 25 cts., and is well worth it, though 
we do not endorse it at all, and we do aim to give our 
readers sounder views on the same subjects every year. 
More Labor Wanted on the Farm. 
A thriving farmer to whom we put the ques¬ 
tion, What item of expenditure pays best in your 
operations? answered “Labor.” He had then 
in the field six men and kept them constantly 
at work for nine months in the year. He had 
but sixty acres of land, yet the gross products 
were about fifteen thousand dollars a year. A 
single item in this year’s crop was <3,000 bushels 
of seed potatoes. His rough farm was rapidly 
rounding into form under his plastic touch. 
Old stone walls had been removed, and the 
small fields opened into large ones. Rocks had 
been blasted and sunk, and the rough places 
made smooth. The wet places had been made 
dry by deep drains. He subsoiled, and guarded 
every crop against drought. He kept at work 
upon improvements, and made the crops pay 
for them. He said be regretted nothing so 
much as that be had not employed more help. 
This clear-headed farmer is unquestionably 
right. Nothing pays so wellas labor, even at the 
present high prices. Almost all farm products 
have advanced more than labor in the last eight 
years. And if this were not so, w 7 e think in 1 lie 
single item of improved implements the farmer 
lias an advantage that more than balances the 
increased price of labor. He can make hay 
cheaper with these tools to-day than he could 
ten years ago without them, though lie pays a 
third more for labor. Yet many of our farmers 
doubt this, and continue to apply the labor of 
one man to a hundred acres, and call it economy. 
We have no doubt it is the most expensive 
mode of applying labor. Almost every thing 
can he made cheaper on a large scale than on a 
small one. The publisher makes very little on a 
thousand copies of a work; on a hundred 
thousand he would make a small fortune. It 
will not pay to build a factory and use power 
looms to make cloth for the use of one family ; 
to clothe the people of a State it is a very good 
business. Most farms have every requisite hut 
labor to grow four or five limes their present 
amount of crops. They have land enough, ami 
often all the materials for making manure. 
They lack the men to haul the sea-weed, the 
muck, or the marl, to burn the lime, and to 
handle the compost. For lack of labor three- 
fourths of their capital lies idle, or pays them 
barely two per cent per annum. One great ad¬ 
vantage of plenty of labor upon the farm is the 
ability to do every thing at the fitting time. 
Nearly half the expense of handling muck is 
saved if it is dug out in a time of drought. 
Three-fourths of the labor of tillage is saved if 
the men are put into the field as soon as the 
weeds are in sight. Every crop is followed up 
with timely care, and is raised at the least cost. 
There arc improvements that almost every farm¬ 
er has upon his mind that never get done for 
the want of labor. He knows that underdrain¬ 
ing is paid for by the extra crops of two good 
years, leaving the land more than doubled in 
value for a lifetime. He never finds time to do 
it. He knows that manures pay well, yet he 
never makes half the amount he could use to 
