[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] AN EFFECTIVE MOLE TRAP.

MESSRS. EDS.-The season is approaching when the gardener will resume his labors. I often think of his trials, because I have frequently been frustrated in my own efforts in this occupation. My present purpose is to write of an intruder, which is in many gardens extremely troublesome and vexatious, and tell you how I rid my garden of him. I refer to the garden mole.

Several years ago I commenced a garden in a piece of warm sandy loam, which had been for many years in .meadow. As soon as the ground was planted the moles commenced their subsoiling and surface plowing. My peas, beans, corn and melons were extensively raised quite too early in the season, and received so great a degree of aeration that they died outright. I was sorely tried, and resolved to exterminate the moles speedily. But I found it easier to resolve than to do. By much watching I caught two or three, but their successors came promptly forward. I then tried to hire boys to watch them, and offered them four shillings apiece for all they would catch. I got no moles in this way.

I then commenced making traps. After several trials I succeeded in my efforts. Judge of my satisfaction as I took the "little plagues". out of the trap, morning, noon and evening,

I supposed a dozen or two were all my grounds contain ed. I was greatly mistaken. I kept the trap set continually; and when autumn came I had caught seventytwo. The next season I caught a greater number still, and nearly exterminated them from my garden and an adjoining meadow of two acres. Last season I caught five only. I did not see a furrow raised by them until the middle of August, and not a mole hill in the meadow. A. A. A. the body of the trap, 10 inches longB. B. B. the hooks connected together by a bowC. the pan, which rises as the mole plows along under it, and releases the trigger D., when the hooks

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A

wire worms.

away the surface down to the mole's path. Then stick
the legs of the trap down close by the side of the path,
until the coil spring comes down to the hole, and lies
lengthwise of the same, directly over it. Then raise the
hooks and set the trap. It is necessary to pack a little
dirt under the pan, and some more on each side of the
same, to exclude the light from the passage, or the mole
will dig deeper as he passes under the hooks, and not get
caught. He springs the trap by raising the pan. The
mole cannot be baited. A trap must be so made as to

shut down on him when he raises the earth.
Gaylordsville, Conn.

C.

The accompanying illustration represents an implement made by Haines & Pell, New-York, for the cultivation of roots or any garden vegetables, between the rows. It is pushed forward by a long handle, the lower part of which only is shown in the engraving, the wheels and knives straddling the rows, so that the whole space between them is cut over and loosened up, the first set of knives being adjusted as closely as practicable to the row, and the others spreading apart as widely as the distance between the rows will admit. It seems to be a convenient and promising tool.

MESSRS. EDITORS-Last year all my peaches were stung by the curculio. In order to prevent their being destroyed this year, I wish to cover the fruit with some suitable material that will effectually prevent their falling victims to the rapacity of the "little Turk." Perhaps you or some of your correspondents will inform me what material is the best and cheapest for this purpose.

West Chester, Pa.

C. D. F.

strike down on to the mole. E. a coil spring.-F., in the dotted line, is the centre of the mole's passage, two We know of no external application that will prevent or three inches below the the attacks of the curculio, that does not cost more to surface of the ground. I send you a drawing of apply effectually, than to kill them by the jarring process, the trap for the benefit of which we have so often described. The lime application gardeners. Some people is repeatedly recommended, and has succeeded by consuppose the mole is useful tinual repetition, when there are but few insects. A in gardens by destroying neighbor used it thoroughly and extensively on many Pigs are trees, and among the rest on several nectarine trees. equally so. I have dissect- Every rain would wash it off, and even heavy dews would ed a great many of them, leave bare spots on the young fruit; the motion of wind and never found anything among the leaves would wear off the lime coating; and in their stomachs except as soon as a single bare spot could be found the insect was the common earth or angle sure to thrust in its egg-depositor. With all the labor thus worm. They do not eat expended, the owner had half a dozen nectarines. Yet, vegetables, but they man- on further inquiry, it was found that these grew on a tree age to destroy them by ill-directed plowing. I have had under which a young calf was kept tied during the curculio strawberry beds, and beds of young seedlings, ruined by season, and which frightened them away. On a small them. They can easily be caught by the trap if the gar- scale, the best way is to jar (not shake) the insects daily dener will pay attention to their habits, and learn to set without a single intermission down on white sheets and the trap right. After my success with my trap, a tool kill them. On a larger scale, the orchard must be conmaker in our village commenced making a few for the verted into a yard for pigs and poultry, which must be neighbors, and by degrees they have been scattered over sufficiently numerous to destroy at once all the stung fruit several towns. They cost about six shillings. [See ad- that falls. When the insects are numerous, both remedies vertisement in another column.] (jarring, and animals,) must be combined. To make the jar sharp and effectual, cut off a limb, leaving a stump an inch long, on which strike with an axe or sledge. All this is familiar to many of our readers, but is repeated in answer to numerous inquiries from others.

MOLE TRAP.

To set the trap-first stamp down all the mole paths in the garden, in order to learn where they come in, which is nearly always from an adjoining piece of turf ground. After having chosen your place to set the trap, scrape

Imported by and the property of R. L. Maitland, Esq., of Newport, R. 1.

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.]

SHEEP EATING EACH OTHER'S WOOL.

MESSRS. EDITORS-Being desirous to know the cause of my sheep eating one another's wool, I take this course thinking perhaps some of your correspondents might suggeet something that would explain the cause, and also a preventive.

IR.PASE DEL

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] LICE ON CALVES.

The circumstances are as follows: I had in the fall upwards of two hundred merino ewes, which I intended A writer in the Co. GENTLEMAN of April 10th, recomto breed from. I divided them equally, selecting all of mends a free use of sulphur for some time, to destroy the greasiest wool ewes, which constituted one flock-this pest of young stock. The process seems too slow to the remainder made up another flock. The former were accomplish the end desired; as you must use sulphur til confined to their yard, with a small range of two acres, the blood has absorbed enough to kill the lice. I should from which they got their drink. The latter had a yard fear that this practice would injure the creature before it would kill the tormenters.

similar to the former, and access to a meadow of 40 acres. Both were fed hay from the same mow, the quality of which for the first three weeks, at the commencement of winter, was coarse, which grew on wettish land, and was salted about 3 quarts to the load. The balance of the time they were fed good timothy hay. Both flocks are in good condition.

The former flock I noticed about the first of February, that from some of them there was a spot of wool torn out from their hips as large as your hand, which increases, and also on the inside of their hind legs, and up under their belly-some on their sides, and some on their forward legs. I watched them closely, and found that some were as greedy for it as they would be for fresh grass in the spring of the year. I immediately went to sorting such out. As fast as I would discover one eating from another, I put them by themselves; but I soon gave that up, for they would strip one another naked.

I once knew a physician, when caterpillars were making sad havoc with the fruit trees, and when the profession were denouncing the use of calomel, as it was a poison; who set his student to try the experiment of inoculating some trees with calomel, thinking that the sap would carry it into the foliage and thus destroy the caterpillars; but it signally failed, and they in time destroyed the trees. The best and surest remedy I ever knew or tried, is to take a strong decoction of tobacco in a pleasant day, and saturate the animal afflicted to the skin all over with it, and your vermin are gone at once. It is a perfect dead shot, and is not injurious to the animal which gets the basting. It is equally destructive to ticks on sheep.

Mexico, N. Y.

HIRAM WALKER.

VERMONT SHEEP.We see it stated that Edwin HamThe latter flock is free from the perplexing and un-mond of Middlebury, recently bought seven ewes of E. profitable habit of the former. I am also wintering four other flocks, and nothing of the kind is to be seen.

I have fed sulphur and salt frequently, and at present keep it before them. I have filled their wool with snuff,

S. Stowell of Cornwall, for which he paid $725. Also, that Geo. Campbell of Westminster, purchased of Mr. Hammond six sheep for $1,400, and five of W. R. Sanford of Orwell, for $500.

PLANT A FEW BEANS.

Friend HARRIS of the Genesee Farmer, annually discourses upon Beans. His reflections on this topic for 1862, appear in the May number, and are as follows:

Cultivation of the White Bean.

For years we have earnestly advocated the more extensive cultivation of the white bean as a field crop on American Farms.

The great need of American agriculture is a good "fallow crop "-some plant that will stand our hot, dry summers, enrich the soil, and allow the use of the horse hoe to clean the land during its growth. A plant, in short, that shall occupy the same place in our rotation as the turnip does in English agriculture.

The white bean comes nearer to this than any other plant yet introduced. If the beans are consumed on the farm-as turnips always are in England-their cultivation would add materially to its fertility. There can be no doubt on this point. All the leguminous plants-including clover, peas, vetches, beans, etc.-contain large quantities of nitrogen, and this when consumed by animals or plowed under, is converted into ammonia-the very thing which we most need for the growth of the cereals.

Let us then grow beans. No crop will pay better. When prices are good, as at present, they can be sold; and if prices fall, they can be fed out on the farm with advantage.

we had very hot weather the latter part of August or fore part of September, which blasted the crop, and one other year we had a white frost the fore part of September which killed it.

I would not recommend any one to plant corn immediately after buckwheat. You need not ask me why, for I cannot tell you; but I have tried it, and have seen it tried by others, and have never known but one instance of a good crop of corn raised after buckwheat, and that was very highly manured. B. Clinton Co., N. Y.

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator. Benefit of Hogs among Fruit Trees. EDS. CO. GENT.-The principal object I had in buying the farm on which I now live, was the fine orchards of fruit. They were then in a very thrifty condition, loaded year after year, with large crops of fruit; but when we came to picking and packing, we were obliged to throw out large portions of them on account of the worm holes and curculio stings with which they were more or less affected, rendering them unsaleable and fit only for cider.

The lower orchard, (the orchards are divided by a public highway,) I have for several years past used as a hog pasture, with very satisfactory results. The apples which were heretofore wormy and knotty, are now as fair, smooth, and free from blemish, as one would wish to see. I allow my hogs and pigs, (the more the better,) free access to the orchards the year round, except a few days in October, while gathering and packing the apples.

In regard to their cultivation we have written so much in previous volumes that little need be added at this time. They are generally grown on warm, light soil, but will succeed on almost any soil if properly cultivated. For this, as for all other crops, the land should be well underIt is seldom apples fall before they are ripe unless somedrained, either naturally or artificially. The land may be plowed in the fall and again in the spring, and made clean thing ails them, and that something is usually an apple worm or a curculio, and as the pigs are not very particuand mellow before planting; or a clover sod may be turn-lar about their diet, all goes down with a relish, thereby ed over, and the beans planted at once. The common "white medium" is generally considered the most productive variety, but the White Mountain or Marrow yields nearly or quite as well, and brings a better price. It is a little larger, rounder, plumper and handsomer, and is gaining in popular esteem.

They may be planted in hills 24 feet apart, and 15 to 18 inches apart in the rows, dropping five to six beans in each hill; or they may be drilled in with a machine, in rows 24 feet apart, and a single bean 2 inches apart in the rows. The latter, perhaps, gives the larger crop, but the former requires less labor in hoeing, etc. In this section they are usually planted the first week in June.

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] BUCKWHEAT A GOOD CROP. MESSRS. EDITORS-I noticed in the Co. GENT. of some time ago, a communication from J. W. COLBURN, on buckwheat being a bad crop for the soil. I consider buckwheat to be a good crop-if not for the soil, it is for the granary. I do not think it a very exhausting crop-not so much so as many others. It seems to draw its subsistence from the atmosphere more than any other crop I raise, and I think so well of the crop that I raised 550 bushels in the year 1860, and nearly as much in 1861. I make use of it for feeding both man and beast, principally to milch cows. I feed it about three parts of buckwheat meal, and one part corn meal.

not otherwise be got rid of.
destroying millions of troublesome insects which could

The hogs keep the orchard thoroughly plowed and manured without any assistance from me; keep down the grass and weeds, rendering the orchard much thriftier than could be done by broadcast cultivation, as the hogs do not disturb the roots, but a plow would, besides the inconvenience of working among trees, where you are liable to do more injury than good.

My upper orchard I am obliged to mow, and one would be astonished at the comparative quantity and quality of the fruit in the two orchards. The difference in quantity is as six to one, and the quality 100 per cent.

The pear and cherry trees enclosed in the orchard in which the hogs run, are loaded nearly every year with crops of fruit which would make an amateur's mouth water-while on trees of the same varieties just across the road, can only be found knotty, wormy, unpalatable specimens. Now I can no more afford to be without hogs in my orchard, than I can afford to be without fruit; for without one I should be almost certain to be deprived of the other; and by adopting this course I seldom fail of having a good crop, and never fail of finding a ready sale at remunerative prices, even when there is a large crop.

If any of the readers of your excellent journal are skeptical on this point, let them try it for a term of years, and I believe their skepticism will vanish with the increase in their crops.

Now, neighbors, don't try the experiment with any of your long-tailed Shanghia racer breeds, with a snout like a ten foot pole, for you'll surely be disappointed with the I will give you a little of my experience in raising buck-result. Such hogs you can never satisfy; they will tear wheat. I have a field of ten acres-a part of it has been the bark from and undermine your trees, besides soon acsown to buckwheat every year for the last thirty years, quire the knack of standing on their hind legs and help and the other part nearly as long, without any manure. themselves to the best fruit. This I know from experiThe first fifteen years it usually grew too large, and some ence. But instead of the above mentioned breed, try part of it would lodge on the ground. Late years it does the Yorkshire, Suffolk or Essex, and you will be doubly not grow quite so stout. I now think of letting it rest paid. J. P. "Brace Farm," Oswego, N. Y. for a time, or put in some other crop. It has yielded from 25 to 30 bushels per acre on an average each year, with Double Chinese Primroses, capable of being propthe exception of two years. One year, I think in 1844, agated by seed, have been introduced into England.

On the Manufacture of Cheddar Cheese.

is allowed to lie for another half-hour. After thus being turned upside down, it is left another half-hour longer. The curd is then vatted and put into the press, on which 28 lbs. are suspended for about twenty minutes. Afterwards it is taken out, milled and salted. Cheshire salt is used at the rate of 2 lbs. to the cwt. It is salted it is allowed to lie, perhaps for half an hour, and stirred in the cooler, and if it is above the desired temperature

[In October last there was a magnificent exhibition of dairy produce at Kilmarnock, Scotland. The Highland Society contributed liberally for premiums. One of them was £20 for the best sweet milk cheese, which was carried by Mr. M'Adam, who has kindly furnished an outline of the method he follows in its manufacture.-ED. Trans-up once or twice. Our dairy being very warm, I am actions of Highland Ag. Society.]

unable to cool down the curd as low as I could wish be

For various reasons I prefer making my cheese accord-fore making it up. ing to the Cheddar system. If the system is carried out with care and intelligence, one is almost certain of obtain. ing a lot more uniform and superior in quality than could possibly be made on the old Dunlop system. The latter is neither so easy nor so cleanly. In regard to quantity I have found, after weighing the milk with the utmost care for two successive days, and making one half on the Cheddar mode and the other half on the Dunlop, that the result is always in favor of the Cheddar.

The difference, however, in the price of the two kinds of cheese is important. In 1859 I sold my whole stock made in that season at £3 12s. 6d. per cwt., or rather over 14s. 6d. a stone of 24 lbs. In 1860 I sold all my cheese made between 23d March and 22d of November, at £3 158., or upwards of 16s. a stone. Last year I sent the whole to an agent in London, and after deducting all charges, had a return of nearly 14s. 6d. a stone.

On the other hand, I have known of no Dunlop cheese sold during the last five years which has realized anything like what I have done. The difference has been at least 3s. per stone in favor of Cheddar.

I make my cheese once a day. The evening's milk, as soon as it is drawn from the cows, is put into shallow tin boynes to cool. Next morning this is put through a very fine wire sieve into the steeping tub, while the morning's milk is added as carried in from the byre. In May and the four succeeding months the milk put in this manner together in the evening and morning will generally have a temperature of about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. If it is not so high, a little of the evening's milk is warmed in boiling water to raise the whole to the above temperature. After this, the sour whey, annatto, and as much rennet as will coagulate the whole in an hour, are added and well

mixed.

I generally put in about four to five quarts of very sour whey to about 140 gallons of milk. As soon as the curd is properly formed, I commence to break it with a hand breaker made of tin and wire, which is somewhat like a riddle, and having a wooden handle about three feet long affixed to the middle. When partially broken, the curd is allowed to subside a little. As much whey is then drawn off and heated as will bring the whole up to to a temperature of 80 degrees. After this, breaking is resumed, and the temperature maintained by adding more heated whey.

Nothing further is done for the next hour, but to draw off and heat as much whey as will raise the temperature to 100 degrees. At the end of the hour a portion of the whey is run off, and the curd is afterwards very gently

broken with a shovel-breaker.

An assistant now gently pours as much heated whey as will once more raise the temperature to 100 degrees. During the time the whey is pouring, the whole is actively stirred, but afterwards more gently, till the curd has acquired proper firmness. I cannot say how long it may be necessary to stir. If too much acid is present, less time is required, and if too little acid, more is necessary: The time will vary, according to these circumstances, from twenty-five to forty minutes.

When stirring is finished, the curd is left half an hour, and then the whey is all drawn off. One side of the tub is raised a little to allow this to take place more perfectly. The curd is then heaped up to the highest side of the tub, covered with a cloth, and left for half an hour. After this interval, it is cut into large slices, turned upside down, covered up, and left for another half-hour. Then it is torn into thin strips and spread on a cooler, on which it

On referring to my diary, I find that not one of the cheeses I exhibited at Kilmarnock was below 68 lbs. when vatted. The cheese is made up between two and three o'clock, p. m., and a dry cloth put on it the same evening. What I make on Monday is carried to the cheese room on Thursday. Each cheese only gets one dry cloth daily. The room is over the dwelling house and dairy. Its temperature during summer ranges between 65 degrees to 80 degrees. The specimens of cheese I exhibited at Kilmarnock were not subjected to any artificial heat.

I use an oak steeping tub in preference to any other. All the implements and utensils are kept as sweet and clean as possible. The weight or pressure put upon the cheese is the same throughout the different stages of the manufacture.

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] TRELLIS FOR GRAPES, &c.

In your issue of Feb. 20, page 126, J. Knox describes his trellis as being eight feet in height. This I think to be too high for grapes as far north as this, although it may of course be the proper height at Pittsburgh. In my opinion, 4 to 5 feet is the limit in height to which a vine should be trained. When this limit is exceeded, the size and quality of the grapes at the extremity of the vines, will be deteriorated. This is not the case however, with laterals; I have often noticed large well ripened clusters of grapes upon laterals at least 8 or 9 feet from the vine, while those upon the main stock, five feet from the ground, were smaller and of an inferior quality. Another and more potent reason for training vines low, is this: they are not so liable to be injured by the cold of our Northern climate as when trained eight or ten feet from the surface. Almost every one has noticed, after a severe winter, the dead stalks upon the vines of those trained upon high trellises, and even sometimes killing the whole top down within four or five feet of the ground. This of itself would seem to prove the value of low training; and frosts will often injure vines six or eight feet from the ground, while nearer the ground the vine remains uninjured.

I

Last fall I visited the vineyard of Mr. HUNGERFORD of Ithaca. His vineyard is situated on the slope west of the village, and about half a mile from it. The slope descends to the east. The vineyard is composed of several gradually swelling knolls, some of which are partially terraced, the soil being a high sandy loam, needing, as he informed me, no underdraining. He has, in all, from three to five acres set to grapes, three of which are in never saw more thriving vines, nor better wood; and bearing condition-all or most mostly all Isabella vines. the grapes, 1 cannot describe them. They were certainly The bunches the most splendid Isabellas that I ever saw. were exceedingly large, some of them weighing over a pound-to the taste they were exceedingly delicious. He stretched upon posts set twelve or fifteen feet asunder. trains his vines to wire trellis, or two or three wires I noticed that almost every cluster was within two or three stated that one of the late frosts killed all of the blows, feet of the ground. I inquired the cause of this. He and they blossoming again but few came out. I do not hardly think this to be the cause of their being so near to the ground; but I think that not all, but a part of the blossoms were killed, and those at the top of the trellis. This is but another proof that low training is beneficial. Train low, but allow the laterals good length. Cayuga Co., May, 1862.

E. A. KING.