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Wheeler's Patent Combined Thresher & Cleaner,

No. 1, 30-inch, and No. 2, 26-inch cylinder;

BULLS AND HEIFERS from imported stock For sale by EDWARD G. FAILE, Feb. 20-wlyr.* West Farms, Westchester Co., N. Y.

MANUAL

of the

OF AGRICULTURE, Prepared under the direction and published with the sanction

BARGER'S PATENTI CLEANING ATTACHMENT, MASSACHUSETTS STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

AS SHOWN IN CUT BELOW.

This Cleaning Attachment can be used with any ordinary Thresher, over or undershot, dispensing with the Shaker or Separator, and take no more power to drive it than to drive the Shaker-to which we call the attention of farmers having Threshers without Cleaners, and can be attached without the aid of a mechanic.

OVERSHOT THRESHERS AND SEPARATORS,

AND OTHER FARMING MACHINES FOR HORSE POWER USE. Circulars containing List of Prices, and full description and Cuts of each Machine, with statement of their capacities for work, will, on application, be sent by mail free.

LIBERAL DISCOUNTS MADE TO DEALERS. Responsible Agents are wanted in sections where we have

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An Elementary Treatise, comprising the Principles and Practice
Agriculture, including the Composition of Soils, the Atmosphere.
Water, Mauures, &c., the Preparation of Lands, the Culture of
Special Crops, the Principles of Rotation, the Diseases
and Enemies of Growing Plants, the Choice and
Management of Farm Stock, and the General
Economy of the Farm and the Household.
For the Use of Schools, Families, and Farmers.
BY GEORGE B. EMERSON.
For many years connected with the Massachusetts Board of Educa
tion, and author of a valuable Report on the Trees
and Shrubs of Massachusetts-and
CHARLES L. FLINT,

Secretary of the Massachusets State Board of Agriculture, author of a Treatise on Milch Cows and Dairy Farming,

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Grasses, and Forage Plants, &c.

ILLUSTRATED BY MANY ENGRAVINGS.

This work supplies a want long and deeply felt in our public schools, and the fidelity, care and practical good sense with which it has been prepared cannot fail to commend it to general favor. The Board of Agriculture of Massachusetts, after a most careful and thorough revision, have given to this Manual the following full and hearty en dorsement:

submitted by its authors, Messrs. Geo. B. Emerson and Charles L. Resolved-That this Board approve of the Manual of Agriculture Flint, and recommend its publication by these gentleman, as a work well adapted for use in the schools of Massachusetts.

Price 75 cents. Copies sent by mail on receipt of the price. Every farmer and every man who cultivates a garden should have this book. For sale by L. TUCKER & SON. Jan. 2-wtf. Albany, N. Y.

ALUABLE BOOKS FOR STOCK GROWERS.

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OF

Stewart's Stable Book (Allen's Edition,)... Youatt & Spooner on the Horse...

1.00

1.25

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LOHR & CO..

London, O.

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No physician needed. A swab, FREE, with each bottle. Two sizes of bottles. 35 and 50 cents, singly; $2.25 and $3,50 per dozen at wholesale, cash.

Send for our numerous certificates, or get them of your Druggist. Sold by Druggists everywhere. Or address May 1-wɔ̃tm2t.

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Quinby s Mysteries of Bee-Keeping Explained..

The above works will be sent by mail, postpaid, on the reception of

CHARLES E. HALLENBECK. Germantown, Columbia Co., N. Y.

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ASA FITCH......

Protection of Fruit Trees, from Curculios, &c., by G. D. N.,

2

COMBINED THRASHERS & CLEANERS, THRESHERS AND SEPARATORS, CLOVER MACHINES, Wood-Saws, (Circular and Cross Cut,) &c. 177 Also an improved pattern of SWEEP HORSE POWERS and LARGE 177 THRESHERS AND CLEANERS.

177

177

178

182

THE FIRST

PREMIUM

was awarded our Thresher and Cleaner at the late New-York State 183 Fair, which, with the many favorable reports from persons using 184 them, prove them to be a superior machine, and as such are recom184 mended to the notice of the public.

186

188

197

197

Also our Improved Clover Machines are offered to the public as possessing all the necessary requirements for hulling and cleaning clover at one operation in the most perfect manner.

ENTOMOLOGY.

Prices and description of the above named machine, will be found

No. 31.-Insect Tumors and Wounds in Raspberry Stalks. by 189 in our Illustrated Circular, which will be sent free to all applicants.

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THE FARMER'S LIBRARY.

We know of no works which afford so much Practical Information on the subject of American Agriculture, which can be procured for 179 double the cost, as the Third Series of "THE CULTIVATOR." the 9th 179 vol, of which is now completed. The price of the Nine volumes, handsomely bound in muslin, is 75 cents each at this office, or $1.00 179 each sent by mail, post paid. Either volume from 1 to 9, can be had 187 separately at the same price. The Nine volumes will be sent per Ex

187

187 press to any part of the country, on receipt of $6 75.

184 Hay Barracks..

196

Alderney Cow Jura..

...

184 Emery's Horse Power.. 185 Wheeler's Horse Power.....

198

199

Just Published, one vol. 12 mo.-$1.25.
ILCH COWS AND DAIRY FARMING;

and Disease, of Dairy and other Stock; the selection of Milch Cows,

F. & M. STRODE still continue to ship their Plants, and the production of Milk, Butter and Cheese; embodying

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the most recent improvements, and adapted to Farming in the United States and British Provinces. With a Treatise upon the Dairy Husbandry of Holland; to which is added Horsfall's System of Dairy Management. By CHARLES L. FLINT, Secretary of the Massachu setts Board of Agriculture; Author of "A Treatise on Grasses and Forage Plants," &c. Liberally Illustrated.

The above valuable work-the best, we have no hesitation in saying yet issued upon the subject-is for sale at the office of this paper. Albany, Jan. 1-w&mtf. L. TUCKER & SON.

BEMENT'S AMERICAN POULTERER'S COMPANION,

price $1.25-Browne's American Poultry-Yard, price $1-Miner's Domestic Poultry-Book, price 75 cents. For sale at the office of this paper.

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PUBLISHED BY LUTHER TUCKER & SON whole proved conclusively the benefit of water alone, and

EDITORS AND PROPRIETORS, 395 BROADWAY, ALBANY, N. Y.

J. J. THOMAS, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, UNION SPRINGS, N. Y. TERMS-FIFTY CENTS A YEAR.-Ten copies of the CULTIVATOR and

Ten of the ANNUAL REGISTER OF RURAL AFFAIRS, with one of each

free to the Agent, Five Dollars.

THE CULTIVATOR has been published twenty-eight years. A NEW SERIES was commenced in 1853, and the nine volumes for 1853, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 60 and 61 can be furnished, bound and post paid, at $1.00 each. THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN," a weekly Agricultural Journal of 16 quarto pages, making two vols, yearly of 416 pages, at $2.00 per year, is issued by the same publishers.

The Cultivator & Country Gentleman.

HYDROPATHY IN THE GARDEN. We gave our readers some suggestions in a late number, on the importance of Irrigation in the growth of farm crops, and inviting further inquiry and experiment. We now wish to direct the same kind of inquiry to the management of the fruit and vegetable garden.

The application of water artificially appears to have a useful effect on all crops that grow better in moist than in dry seasons. Meadows, for instance, as every one is aware, produce the largest growth of grass when we have plenty of rains, and are light when the early part of the season-the period of most rapid growth,-is dry. Farmers are familiar with the fact that wet swales give a heavier crop of grass, than dry knolls. And some have witnessed examples where the streams from clear springs, flowing in a slow current downward over meadow land, have marked a heavy growth on this watered streak. Rain or spring water, clear or turbid water, will always increase the growth of grass, if not in excess. (Wet, cold, watersoaked places, are often observed to give little else than coarse or sedge grasses-and they furnish examples of the evils of excess.) An example is familiar on our own grounds, where a meadow lay between the fork of two large creeks-partly flats and partly upland. One stream was always very turbid at the time of high water, the other clear. That portion of the meadow washed by the former was uniformly the heaviest, yielding usually three tons of hay per acre, and often more; the other about two and a half. The higher land, similar in quality, but not overflowed, yielded rarely over half a ton, and the line of demarcation between them (the line between the flowed and unflowed,) was as distinct as possible. The

the superior benefit of a thin deposit annually of simple mud, which had no fertility in itself greater than other soil.*

These remarks do not however apply to the subject in hand, further than to illustrate general principles. We may add, that discrimination is essential in watering different crops. The wet swale, for example, which will

afford the heaviest grass, may produce the poorest corn; yet there is still a certain amount but, much less quantity of moisture essential to corn, for it may be parched and dried by extreme drought.

All vegetables which will receive high manuring, are improved by irrigation-such for instance, as celery, asparagus, rhubarb and cabbages. But the amount must be determined by judgment or some experience, and vary with the nature of the season. All who are familiar with the culture of the strawberry and raspberry, will remember the reduced size and inferior quality of both these fruits when a severe drought has occurred during the time of their ripening. We have known a heavy rain at such time, to double the size of the ripening Franconia raspberries, in two or three days. We have also seen ripening strawberries, placed accidentally under the slow drip of a water cart, doubled in size in twenty-four hours. The artificial watering has this advantage over the irrigation of rains-in being accompanied with no exclusion of warmth and sunlight-an exclusion usually attendant on natural watering, and rendering some of these fruits sourer and less palatable in wet seasons. As a general rule, fruits of a high and concentrated flavor, are rendered more pleasant by the diluting which they receive by irrigation; and seedy fruits, as some kinds of raspberries, are rendered more pulpy in the same way.

A late number of the Boston Cultivator contains an account of some experiments reported by Artemas Newell, of Needham, Mass., to the Norfolk Agricultural Society, on irrigating strawberries growing in a pear garden. A few acres of dry gravelly ridge were planted with dwarf pears, nine feet apart. Between each row, a bed for strawberries was formed, by back-furrowing very deep to the centre, thus making the bed three feet wide, with a furrow between each bed and row of trees, for the water to run in when needed. The water was let into a main channel which passed on the higher side and nearly at right angles to these rows. Between this channel and the rows a plank was placed, set on edge, and with a hole soil on grass, has been proved by scattering fine soil over the surface bored for each furrow between the pear rows and strawartificially. Farmers are familiar with the strong and early growth berry beds. A cork placed in each hole regulated or exof grass along the borders of corn and other cultivated fields, where cluded the water at pleasure. The water passed off at earth has been scattered accidentally in turning the harrow or culti-the lower side and irrigated a meadow.

The same principle.-the benefit from a thin surface coating of

vator at the ends of rows,

The results were, the pear trees made twice the growth ance. He takes up, quite systematically, the situation, of wood when well irrigated. The difference in the lux- aspect and protection required; the preparation of the uriance of the trees could be seen at a long distance. Soil, as to draining, trenching, subsoiling, manuring, ter"The best trees are where there is irrigation on the sur-racing or garden borders; the planting of the Vines, as face, and drain pipes laid directly under them, four feet to time, selection, distance, marking off for and digging below." We copy the statement of the mode of plant- the holes, taking up and putting in the plants, staking and ing the strawberries, and the effects of the water upon after culture; their care for the three years ensuing, inthem :cluding mulching, treatment of laterals and winter protection; their management, when fruiting, in winter and summer; the subsequent treatment required, with the theory and practice of pruning and training, the construction of walls, trellises, &c., the different methods of propagation, manures and the effects of manuring, diseases and insects, methods of out-door forcing, etc. We next have a somewhat detailed account of several of the principal newer sorts of Native Grapes, and a convenient "tabular view of the size, color, shape, etc., of all the varieties of American Grapes of which any account can be found." A chapter follows on the Manufacture of Wine, and an Appendix, containing descriptions of several vineyards, and about fifty pages devoted to a full account of the Thomery system, translated from the French, and said to be highly recommended by Dr. GRANT.

"Strawberries I plant between the rows of pear trees, in deep, light beds three feet wide only. By this arrangement the soil is never trodden down either in planting, weeding, trimming, or picking the fruit, and they are much more easily kept free from weeds. The beds are liberally supplied with strong manure, placed in one deep furrow in the centre of the bed, at least one foot below the surface. One row of plants is set directly over the manure, the plants fifteen to eighteen inches apart. They are set in the month of May. The hole for the plant is made with a tool like a marlin-spike, reaching down well into the manure. The roots are let down and the hole is carefully filled with fine earth without pressing, then soaked with water, and dry earth placed over the top to prevent baking. The effect of placing the manure so deep, is to carry the roots of the plant through the manure to the soil in a dry time, to entirely cover the beds by autumn with the most vigorous plants, and to keep the seeds of weeds and grass so low that they will do no harm. The fruit is mostly grown on the new plants, which have derived their vigor from the manure chiefly through the roots of the original plant, the runners of which are cut off in the spring for the purpose of weeding, &c.

Most of my strawberrry beds are watered liberally by a constant flow of water along the channels, which have been described. The results are, that the berries are large and fair; they do not ripen quite as early, but continue in bearing much longer; the crop is certain, even in the dryest seasons, when those on dry land are cut off -sometimes before half the crop is matured. In fact, I deem irrigation almost indispensable for the successful cultivation of strawberries in dry seasons."

The irrigation of the meadow doubled the amount of hay.

We may remark in conclusion, that while Irrigation cannot supply the place of manure and good cultivation, it will doubtless prove an excellent auxiliary, where it is practicable to introduce it; and so far as gardening is concerned, deep and enriched soil, and thorough and mellow culture, will go far towards preventing the effects of drought, where irrigation cannot be introduced. combination of both would, if managed with judgment, produce excellent results.

NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

Such is Mr. PHIN's programme. Judging from a cursory examination we should think it well carried out, and that the book would be of material assistance to the very large number, both in the city and on the farm, who are now seeking more light and information on the subject of which it treats. There is no variety of Fruit which is now attracting more attention in this country than the Grape.

Messrs. A. S. BARNES & BURR, the publishers of so many standard text books for our institutions of learning, of every grade from the infant school to the University, have just added to their list a new manual relating to a branch of education which has hitherto been far too greatly neglected. Its title is "The Boy Soldier," and it embraces a complete outline of Infantry Tactics precisely adapted to the wants of teachers and scholars in public and private schools. Its instructions are founded with care upon the authorized text-books; and it will amply suffice to supply the place of an experienced drill-master, for its directions are fully and clearly expressed and accompanied by all the necessary diagrams and figures. A large part of our readers, we are confident, will coincide in the opinion, both that thorough and systematic drilling will be

a feature of attractiveness and promotive of health in our schools, and also that the experience through which the country is now passing, demonstrates the great conveniAence and usefulness of acquiring in youth at least this degree of Military knowledge.

Mr. JOHN PHIN of Rochester, has prepared a book on Open Air Grape Culture," just published at $1 by C. M. Saxton, 25 Park Row, New-York. It contains 375 pages and over one hundred illustrations.

Wool Exhibition at Ohio State Fair. It is announced that the Ohio State Board of Agriculture has decided on having a grand exhibition of wool during the coming State Fair in that city, and for this purpose has established premiums and appointed awarding committees that will induce growers to send in their wool for competition. Four classes have been arranged, comprising Felting Wools, Delaine Wools, Cassimere Wools and Combing Wools. In each class there will be three premiums, of $20, $10, and $5, respectively. None but actual growers are allowed to exhibit, and competition is open to all parts of the United States and the Canadas. Samples must contain not less than twenty fleeces. The Awarding Committees are partly composed of experienced eastern manufacturers and practical western wool men. A capacious building will be erected for the convenience of exhibition, and a wool sale at auction will close the Fair.

"No one," remarks the author, "having even a few square feet of ground, should be without a Grape Vine. If the soil, aspect and exposure be good, a generous return of luscious fruit may be expected for a very trifling expenditure of time and money. If the conditions be otherwise, still, by care, a tolerable crop of Grapes may be obtained even in very unfavorable circumstances, and no fruit tree yields so quickly and so abundantly as the Vine." Mr. PHIN's object has been to compile a treatise on the ordinary management of the Grape, to meet the wants, not of professional vine-growers, so much as of We greatly regret to hear of the recent death of amateurs and beginners, who are so frequently in want of Mr. JONN W. HOLBERTON, Recording Secretary of the some authority to which to turn for suggestions and guid-'Ontario County Agricultural Society.

The Communication of Abortion among Cows.

NICARAGUA.

EXTRACT FROE A RECENT LETTER TO THE CULTIVATOR, FROM HON.

A. B. DICKINSON, U. S. Minister.

Character of Rivers and Springs in Central
America.

The first thing which attracted my attention in Central America, was the excessive whiteness of the wearing apparel of all classes. If not made entirely clean by the washerwoman, the linens and muslins were nevertheless so white that the first inquiry I made after inquiring about the soil was, with what water and by what process are your clothes washed? I got no clue to the secret till I went to the washerwoman, who told me that they always went to the rivers, creeks or springs, and never used rainwater if they could get to any of these places by travelling

[The disposition to "slink their calves," recently very prevalent among the cows in some dairy districts in this State, has naturally created much apprehension. When once started, there seems to be no way of arresting the difficulty; and it sometimes occurs when none of the reasons ordinarily given for its origin, will at all apply. Understanding that there was a theory among the dairy farmers near Philadelphia, as to the sources and communication of this very annoying and often ruinous difficulty, we wrote to D. B. HINMAN, Esq., President of the Chester County (Pa.) Ag. Society on the subject, and append his reply below. It will be seen that he presents a very strong argument in support of an explanation, which we have never before seen in print, and which if farther sup-a mile, or even two. I soon learned the reason of it. In ported in the experience of Farmers in other localities, will prove of important service in promoting the eradication of abortion where it is now prevalent, or preventing its spreading where it may hereafter appear.-EDs. COUNTRY GENTLEMAN.]

HIGHFIELD FARM, May 15, 1862. GENTLEMEN:-Yours of the 6th was duly received, and I have been unable to comply with your request until

now.

Many of our intelligent farmers do not believe that abortion in cows is produced by anything they eat, or for the lack of anything they do not eat. Among these are many who claim that abortion, or rather the first case of abortion, is produced by accident. A fall, slip, injury by a master cow, or some such cause, produces in the herd the first abortion, which taking place in the yard, causes among the other cows a great excitement-sometimes even to pawing and bellowing, each one seeming anxious to smell of the dead calf. When, on the other hand, a cow drops a fully matured live calf in the presence of other cows, there is always perfect quietness and a disposition among the other animals to withdraw to some other part of the yard. I presume that most observing

farmers have noticed this.

We think that when the first case has occurred, and the disease has spread among the herd from mere sympathy, it is continued to the next year and perpetuated through the agency of the bull.

It is almost universally the case that an aborting cow comes into heat much sooner than a cow that goes her full time-frequently within a very short time, and is served by the bull while her organs are much diseased; and the bull, serving a healthy cow soon after, will communicate the disease to her, upon somewhat the same principle as venereal diseases are communicated in an other species. How long after serving a diseased cow, the bull will communicate the disease to a healthy cow we cannot say.

I will mention a few cases among a great many that have occurred in this neighborhood, as some evidence of the truthfulness of this bull theory. A large number of Mr. A.'s cows abort; his bull, a fine Alderney, serves them. He living near the village, a number of persons keeping but a single cow, send their cows to this bull; out of six sent to and served by him, five aborted between five and seven months; these cows had never aborted before and have not since.

Abortion prevailed in another herd. The cows during the spring are all sold to one party and the bull to another party. The party purchasing the bull did not believe in the bull theory, but the next season nearly every cow served by the bull aborted. No abortion had taken place on this farm previous to this, and nearly every cow from adjoining farms served by this bull also aborted.

travelling through the country I found a little village where nothing of this nice bleaching was seen. They repiled to my inquiry, that no spring or stream could be reached within eight miles, and so they were compelled to wash with rainwater. This led me to investigate the matter, and I discovered that rainwater could be improved a hundred per cent. by having the proper quantity of alkali mixed with it, to slip the dirt out and bleach the clothing. There was no plant growing here that I had ever seen before by which I could detect the character of the soil, though I could tell its depth by the growing trees, and various other indications. The streams, though strongly alkaline in character, were so remarkably clear, and in general appearance so unlike the alkali drainage of other countries, and the vegetable growth so rapid and profuse, that I was completely lost. To see a soil that had been cultivated for the last three hundred years in the the strongest and most prolific soil that my eyes ever restmanner best calculated to destroy it, still hold out to be ed upon, was almost as great a wonder as the wisdom-confounding phenomenon of Liebig.

The Plain of Leon Fertilized by Volcanic

Fires.

I found the magnificent plain of Leon, surrounded by blue-topped volcanoes, and covering hundreds of square miles in extent, with a deep and finely pulverized soil of most wonderful fertility, strongly impregnated with alkali, closely resembling an alluvial deposit, yet showing no sign of a watery formation, and I was lost in wonder and perplexity, until an astounding fact was revealed to me. It was made not by water, but by fire. The huge volcanic furnaces now standing around in silent grandeur were once in full blast, fusing the solid earth with all its buried treasures into a molten mass, and casting it forth into the cooling atmosphere to descend upon the earth in fine impalpable powder, containing the richest fertilizing ingredients. Millions of tons of solid earth were thus sifted through the atmosphere, and spread as softly and as evenly over the surface as the gently falling snow. Here was a process equally powerful, equally grand, but how different from that which formed the great valley of the Mississippi.

The eruption of one of these volcanoes in the year 1835, filled and darkened the atmosphere for three days, and covered the face of the earth with its fertilizing treasures over the whole of Central America. The vast plain of Leon was covered with darkness and filled with gloom and consternation for three memorable days. When the volcanic storm cleared away, and the smiling heavens again appeared, the entire plain was covered over to a depth of several inches with a fertilizing material of inbe-exhaustible richness made by the Great Chemist-who never makes a mistake-with the earth for his crucible and the heavens for his purifier. Thus the soil of this country is kept blooming in perennial beauty, and supplied with inexhaustible plenty. A. B. DICKINSON.

Another case. Mr. D. sells all his cows and retains his bull; the next season his cows abort quite as bad as fore.

If your readers who are interested in this subject, will give it their attention, I am quite sure they will find many facts to sustain the theory.

H.

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