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were, unknown here, though it can be made of an inferior quality, with great pains. Good butter can be brought here, however, from the Northern States, if well made and properly packed for a hot climate, which in time will be done to a great extent, to the mutual advantage of both countries.

SIZE OF THE MEN.

The size of man is also less here than in temperate climates. His average weight in this country would fall below 130 pounds, whereas in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont it would be 160 pounds, and in New York and the Western States, 150 pounds.

NO MANURE SAVED.

The soil is made from the out-pourings of volcanoes, and has for ages been enriched with the ashes of burning mountains, which has made this country so unlike all others, that it has withstood the worst cultivation ever devised by man to exhaust a soil. The inhabitants all live in cities or villages, and bring everything from the farm to the place of residence to be consumed without the least particle ever being returned to renovate the soil; and not satisfied with this system, that would in time exhaust any other soil, they sow their corn for fodder, and pull that and the grass up by the roots, with much of the light soil sticking to them, so that when brought in the rain for the animals, which are kept in the towns, the water that runs from the cart loads looks as black as tar water. And this course has been pursued for the last 300 years, with two and sometimes three crops of corn per year or an alternate crop of corn and tobacco. They are now nozzling up their corn-fields with crooked sticks drawn by oxen, to plant tobacco; and that which has been set 15 or 20 days looks better, darker colored, and more thrifty than any other I ever saw in my life, not excepting that which I have seen grown on the bed of a coal pit. All the manure that accumulates here is hauled off and thrown into the river, holes or ravines. They never think of spreading it on their farms or gardens. No one seems to know whether it would do good or harm, as I have never seen the first man that has tried it on either farm or garden.

AN EASY WAY TO DISSOLVE BONES.-James S. Grennell, Esq., of Greenfield, practices dissolving bones by a method which seems worthy of notice from its simplicity and convenience. Casks having each but one head are provided; a layer of bones six or seven inches thick placed on the bottom; then strong, unleached wood ashes are spread over the bones to the thickness of two inches or more. The casks are filled in this way, taking care to have a pretty good thickness of ashes at the top to prevent the exhalation of ammonia. The process of thus packing the bones goes on through the season, or as ashes accumulate in the house,

and they remain in the casks till spring, when the casks are emptied, and the bones are found to be generally well pulverized, or so soft that they can easily be broken as fine as desired. The mixed bones and ashes are excellent manure for most crops, and especially for fruit crops.-Boston Cultivator.

Take Care of Your Harness.

More damage is done to harness during the rainy weather of early and late winter than during all the rest of the year. Saturated with water, covered with mud, and often frozen stiff, so as to almost break when bent, in necessary handling, unusual care should be taken to keep it well oiled and hung up in proper shape when not in use. Thus treated, it will not only last many times longer, but look infinitely better than when neglected in the usual manner.

As to the kind of oil, we know of nothing better than neat's-foot or the daubing used by tanners. To give the black color characteristic of new leather, a little lampblack may be added, without detriment, though it is better not to use this until the second going over.

Before putting on the oil, however, there are two important conditions which must be observed-cleanness and dampness. The necessity of the first is obvious, and the last is not less important, since the oil cannot penetrate the leather and make it soft and pliable if put on when it is dry and hard.

One of the best ways to give to the leather the requisite degree of moisture is to wrap up the several parts of the harness in wet cloth a few hours previous to oiling. But this trouble is unnecessary where washing has been resorted to for cleaning, as the oil may then be applied before the leather is entirely dry. The oil should be rubbed in briskly with a brush or cloth, so as to insure its absorption.

Varnish should never be used as it closes the pores and renders the penetration of oil more difficult. Vegetable oils are hardening in their effects and should never be used for that reason.

Finally, let the application of oil be as frequent as needed, not once a year, as is the rule with some, or almost never as is the practice of many.

Valuable Thoughts for the Farmer.

[From an Agricultural Address, by LUTHER H. TUCKER, Esq., Editor Country Gentleman.]

THE PROBLEM OF MAINTAINING THE FERTILITY

OF THE SOIL.

It is the great problem which has puzzled the farmers of every age-how best to maintain the fertility of the soil under the constant drafts it is obliged to sustain to meet the daily wants of man and beast. In a new land the virgin luxuriance which at first requires no artificial aid from the manure heap, and perhaps seems almost inexhaustible, after a crop or two, or it may be, not until after a considerable series of years-shows signs of diminished productiveness;—and then it is soon discovered that Art must come to the assistance of Nature-that the soil must be fed as well as bled that the old, old study which dates back some thousands of years before the parable was narrated of the barren tree that required to be "digged about and dunged," must be renewed and again investigated, under changing conditions, but in accordance with unchanging principles. As the Agriculture of a country grows still older, this question of manures and manuring, becomes more and still more the subject of discussion among its Farmers. We, in New York, are as yet but just upon the threshold of the question. We look around us upon here and there a locality, or perhaps a single farm, which has been "run down" by over-cropping,-where the farmers, like their land, are now poor-and, again, upon occasional instances of well sustained production and prosperous farmers, and we are beginning to learn that in the one case proper attention to manuring has been invariably neglected -in the other, that it has been, just as invariably, the object of unceasing care and judicious expenditure. The logical connection between abundant compost-piles in well-managed barn-yards, and heavy granaries or well filled hay-mows, it seems almost uniformly to require a generation or two, thoroughly to establish; and even now, as much as we hear it discussed on such occasions as this-as much as we read about it in our agricultural papers -one would certainly think, to judge from far too many farmsteads we pass by on every public road I have ever travelled, that the agricultural mind was not yet quite clear as to the cardinal necessity of economizing and liberally applying manurial substances.

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THE RESOURCES OF ANY SOIL MAY BE EXHAUSTED, OR, BY GOOD MANAGEMENT, RENDERED PRACTICALLY ILLIMITABLE.

In this question of the permanently productive power of the soil, there are, as in most others, two extreme positions-one, which is in disregard both of reason and experience, and the other, which is perhaps only an exag

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gerated form of presenting the truth. One of our old-fashioned farmers here, or a farmer of the present day on the prairies of the West, may tell me that the nature of his soil is such that it requires no nursing-no manuring-that its fertility will never fail. Him I do not behis soil must, practically speaking, become lieve; eventually,-under his way of farming exhausted;" instead of that kind of management which shall only draw the interest, so to speak, upon the wealth that has been acccumulating there for his use, during untold years, he has attacked his capital, and is every day prodigally diminishing it. On the other hand, the chemist-the great Liebig, for instancewill argue, to take the island of Great Britain as an example-that all its mineral soil-resouretation, are in fact running into the sea through ces for the food and sustenance of future vegits city sewers-the ultimate end of all its Agricultural production being to feed the vast crowds of humanity there congregated;-and that the entire loss of these mineral elements can only be a question of time, unless prompt every town and hamlet,—just as "a well, howmeans are taken to utilize the sewerage of ever deep it may be, which receives no supply of water, must in the end become empty, if its Him again I do not fully credit; for while the pump is water is constantly pumped out." pouring forth the contents of the well, there looks; the capitalist may be spending more or may possibly be hidden springs which he overless every year-and yet so long as his expen

ditures are less than the interest which accrues instead of poorer;-and there is one sense, in upon his money, he will be growing richer which I believe the soil to be, when properly managed, illimitable in its resources-subject to no necessity of our carrying back upon it, pound for pound, exactly the materials, in weight and kind, that our crops have carried off. What land, if such were the law of vegethe home of man, whether savage or civilized, tation, has ever been, century after century, which would not in the end have become a desert? It has been claimed that the Chinese † really do accomplish this return to the soil of all the inorganic elements of the food which it produces, but we may be permitted to doubt whether their careful exactness in this respect has not been extolled by travellers somewhat beyond its actual desert-whether, in point of fact, the manure they save and apply, is at all comparable in quantity with that which the English import from other nations in the form of guano, bones, and feeding stuffs for their animals, or mine out of the depths of their own island in the form of useful minerals or the fossil remains of extinct animal races.

*Letter from Baron Liebig to Alderman Mechi, Nov. 17, 1860.

Liebig's Letters on Modern Agriculture, page 248.

The Chinche Bug and Deep Plowing.

An old farmer is this town told a young farmer as follows:

"If you ever raise a good crop by late sowing, be sure and not tell your children of it." I will state a fact in relation to chinche bugs and deep plowing; and this, perhaps, should

be kept from the children.

In the spring of 1857, I followed the common breaking plow, on prairie sod, with a common steel plow made sharp, and turned a good heavy furrow from beneath the first one, on the centre of the land, being a strip about three rods wide and one hundred rods long. Since then I have taken two crops of corn and two of wheat from the field through which the three rods strip was double plowed. This year wheat grew upon it, and the three rods strip turned white from the ravages of the chinche bugs, while each side was green and growing. The lines on each side were as straight as the

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Make Farm Labor Fashionable.

At the base of the prosperity of any people lies this great principle-make farm labor fashionable at home. Educate, instruct, encourage; and offer all the incentives you can offer, to give interest and dignity to labor at home. Enlist the heart and the intellect of the family in the support of a domestic system that will make labor attractive at the homestead. By means of the powerful influences of early home education, endeavor to invest practical labor with an interest that will cheer the heart of each member of the family, and thereby you will give to your household the grace, peace, refinement and attraction which God designed a home should possess.

something more than the school-house, academy, college and university. The young mind should receive judicious training in the field, in the garden, in the barn, in the workshop, in the parlor, in the kitchen-in a word around the hearth-stone at home.

Whatever intellectual attainments your son may have acquired, he is unfit to go forth into society if he has not had thrown around him the genial and purifying influences of parents, sisters, brothers, and the man-saving influence of the family government. The nation must look for virtue, wisdom and strength, to the education that controls and shapes the home policy of the family circle. There can be no Patriotism, true and genuine, the only kind love of country where there is no love of home. worthy of the name, derives its mighty strength from fountains that gush out around the hearthstone; and those who forget to cherish the household interests will soon learn to look with indifference upon the interests of their common country.

We must cultivate roots-not tops. We must make the family government, the school, the agricultural fairs, the laboratories of our future greatness.

men.

farmers, artisans, architects, engineers, geologists, botanists, chemists-in a word, practical Their eyes must be turned from Washington to their States, counties, townships, districts, and homes. This is true patriotism; and the only patriotism that will perpetually preserve the nation.-Gov. WRIGHT.

We must educate our sons to be

Sorghum.

We have favorable reports of the Sorghum crops of the past season. The opening of the war and the certainty of advanced prices had the effect to stimulate the farmers, and the result appears to have been an increased supply of sorghum molasses.

As appears by the statistical returns, the number of acres planted in 1860 was 318 85100, yielding a product of 51,135 gallons of molasses and 3,493 lbs. of sugar. the crop must have been considerably larger than this, though we have not sufficient data for a safe estimate.

Last year

We have never believed that Sorghum would come to be a great staple crop in our State, but the success which has attended its cultiva

The truth is, we must talk more, think more, work more and act more, in reference to question on a small scale should be an encouragetions relating to home. ment to more of our farmers to cultivate it for Next season we shall expect a their own use. much larger crop than ever before.

The training and improvement of the physical, intellectual, social and moral powers and sentiments of the youth of our country, require

Western Plantation Sugar Cane Sirup.

The Committee appointed by the Illinois State Horticultural Society, at its late session in this city, to report on the subject of refining the crude Sorghum, or Chinese sugar cane sirup, visited the works of the Chicago Refinery on Saturday morning after the adjournment of the meeting, and deem the information obtained of sufficient importance to make it public at an early day. The following is their report: On visiting the works of the Chicago Sugar Refining Company, we were cordially received by Mr. Belcher, and were afforded every opportunity for obtaining information. We spent several hours in examining into the process by which the company have so successfully refined the Sorghum sirup and produced the excellent article exhibited to the Horticultural Society. We were assured by Mr. Belcher, and the Chemist and Superintendent Mr. Bender, that there was no secret in the process; although expensive machinery and thorough practical skill are necessary to attain the best results.

We directed our attention to the following points:

1st. What foreign substances are used in refining? Would their use be likely to render the refined product unhealthful?

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2d. What is the loss in quantity by refining? 3d. What is the expense of refining? 4th. How does the refined article rank in grade with other refined sirups?

5th. How can the farmers get their sirup re

fined?

6th. Is there any sale for the crude sirup?

ANSWERS.

1st. A small quantity of lime water is introduced at the commencement of the boiling. Next the sirup is strained through canvas sacks. Afterwards it passes into immense bone filters, containing "bone charcoal." By these three processes a great amount of extraneous vege table matter is extracted. It is then subjected to a rapid boiling at 160° heat, in what is called a "vacuum pan," which finishes the process.

any of the railroad depots in this city, in quantities of five barrels or over, and to refine it at ten cents per gallon, returning to the depot, for each man, an equal amount of sirup, less its actual loss in refining; or to return seventy-five gallons for every one hundred gallons received. These figures include drayage, cooperage, and repainting the heads.

The company will sell the refined Sorghum under the new name of (now used for the first Small

time) WESTERN PLANTATION SIRUP. packages of ten gallons each may be obtained of them at fifty-five cents per gallon.

6th. The company will now purchase for further experiment 200 or 300 barrels of the crude article at thirty-five cents per gallon, delivered, before establishing any regular price at which they will buy it.

A sirup refinery may be started at a cost of about $12,000. The cost of the machinery alone in the works above was $60,000. It has a capacity for refining 100 bbls. per day in addition to its regular business.

We learn further, from a number of wholesale grocers of this city, that the sirup trade has greatly fallen off since the introduction of the Chinese cane. In numerous localities country merchants do not keep any but Sorghum sirup on sale.

The cultivation of the Sugar cane in the North-West is no longer a matter of doubt. As high as 350 gallons of sirup have been produced per acre. 150 gallons is a small yield. Whether sugar can be profitably produced from it is not yet determined.

We shall soon have a home supply and a surplus to export to the Eastern States.

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CROPS IN KENTUCKY.-We have just received So far as we could judge, there was nothing the following memoranda of crops in Kentucky, used to impair, but rather improve the health-from Hon. L. J. Bradford, President of the fulness of the refined product. This cannot Kentucky Agricultural Society: be said of some of the refined sirups offered in market.

2d. One hundred gallons of fair crude sirup yield about ninety gallons of the refined pro

duct.

3d. The cost of refining is not over six cents per gallon in large quantities.

4th. It ranks with the best refined "Golden Sirup." The Eastern refined sirups are not uniform in quality, except in the higher grades. It has none of the "boneset" taste of the unrefined sirup, nor the smoky flavor which often occurs in other refined sirups.

5th. The company offer to receive sirup at

Total number of Hogs,.

Pounds of Tobacco,.

Tons of Hay,

Pounds of Hemp,......

Bushels of Corn,.
Bushels of Wheat,.
Bushels of Barley,.
Tons of Pig Metal,..
Tons of Bloom,.
Tons of Bar Iron,......

143,157

1860. 1,009,153

1859.

97,906,903

1,514,274 95,505,548

115,795

7,691,816

10,101,157

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Crops for 1861 show a very large increase over 1860. The wheat, barley, rye and grasses look promising. Stock looks very fine; our pastures were never better at this season of the year.-L. J. B., in Ohio Farmer.

STOCK REGISTER.

Those Wool Clips Again.

LEED'S CENTER, December 10th, 1861.

MR. J. W. HOYT, ED. WIS. FARMER-Dear Sir-In the last FARMER you published a statement from Mr. A. Pratt, and you cannot fail to perceive what an injurious effect the printing of only half of my communication has had upon me, not only in the opinion of Mr. Pratt, but many others who read the

FARMER.

Mr. Pratt says I left it to them to infer, that my yearling ewes might or might not have been washed, whereas I said 6 lbs. and 2 oz. of clean washed wool; but the words "clean washed wool" were omitted in printing. I still claim to be ahead as I stated in my first letter, and as it would appear if the whole had been printed.

I did not think these lambs alone were hard to beat at all, for they were the lightest fleeced of my whole flock; but I have 31 breeding ewes that sheared 7 lbs. 9 oz. per head, and 17 that averaged per head 8 lbs. 3 oz. Nearly all the above, except the yearlings, raised lambs, and you see they shear considerable more than Mr. Pratt claims for his. This, the heaviest shearing, was all omitted to my great injury.

My sheep are full blood Spanish, and bred from some of the most celebrated flocks in Vermont, such as Rich, Webster, Rumsey, Hammond, &c., some of which could not be got for a round one hundred dollars. Now I wish you to correct the error of the Nov. No. which will amend the matter in part; if not, I shall think others are more highly favored by the FARMER than myself. Yours, A. JONES.

REMARKS OF THE EDITOR.-The communica

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All good farmers salt their animals, but not always with sufficient regularity; and there are many lazy or careless persons who pass under the denomination of farmers, though they are not worthy of the name, who neglect this important duty to their stock.

Horses, cattle, and sheep should be regularly supplied with salt at all seasons of the year, without stint. It promotes their health, improves their condition, and when they become used to it, there is no danger of their taking it in injurious quantities. It promotes their digestion and destroys worms in the stomach larly salted are free from bots and cholic, and Horses that are reguand alimentary canal. experience, as well as experiment has shown, that it is highly beneficial to both cattle and sheep.

Boussingault made some observations or experiments with cattle to ascertain the influence of salt upon fattening them. His experiment goes to prove that the increase in weight does not pay for the salt used. His experiments, which extended over a period of thirteen months, were tried with cattle as near alike as possible; the result was that at the end of the thirteen months those cattle which were liberally supplied with salt, had a smooth, glossy coat, and were lively; while those who were without salt were languid and their coats rough and partially bare.

more than meet the expenses of salt.

The fine appearance of the salted cattle will tion to which our friend JoNEs refers as pub-command an addition to the price, which will lished on page 408 of the November number, certainly does him great injustice according to his statement in the above. It was received at the office during our absence East, sent to the printer by our book-keeper and mailing agent, and all printed, ready for distribution, with the comment at the close, when we re

It has always been my practice to salt my cattle once a week when out of the yard. I the proportion of two of bran to one of salt. use common coarse salt mixed with bran, in Imagine your friend S. Harrow, surrounded by some fifteen or twenty oxen, steers, cows, calves, and four or five horses. What better can a good farmer want than thus to collect his cattle around him on Sunday morning, let

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