1863 THE ILLUSTRATED 1863 ANNUAL REGISTER OF RURAL AFFAIRS. NO. IX---FOR 1863. The publication of the NINTH NUMBER of THE ILLUSTRATED ANNUAL REGISTER OF RURAL AFFAIRS, for 1863, has been somewhat detain ed for the completion of a very full and valuable Treatise on Entomology, including those Insects about which there is now the greatest desire for general information, from the accomplished pen of the State Entomologist, Dr. ASA FITCH. We are happy to say that this article is now in the hands of the printers, and that the ANNUAL REGISTER will be ready for issue about the 20th of October. Meantime orders will be received and registered as usual, and at the usual rates: Single Copies Twenty-Five Cents. 4. Cuphea Limapani-The Striped French Marigold, 5. Dwarf Nasturtium-New Sweet Williams. 6. Dwarf Convolvulus--Oenothera Camarkiana-Splendid Ga zania. 7. Lychnis Haageana-Whittavia Grandiflora, 8. Calleopsis Cardaminitolia-The Gaillardias. *.* This article was written for the ANNUAL REGISTER With Drawings and Engravings expressly prepared to accompany it, and not before published in this country, by JAMES VICK, Esq., of Rochester. IX. ADVERTISEMENTS. This, preceded by the usual Calendar pages and Astronomical Calculations, forms a book which is certainly cheap at its retail price, and the Publishers, with a view of rendering its circulation still wider and larger than that of any previous Number, are prepared, as above intimated, to offer the most liberal Terms for its introduction in quan. tities, either to Agents, Agricultural Societies, Nurserymen, Dealers in Implements and Seeds, or any others who take an interest in the dissemination of useful reading, and in the promotion of Rural Improvement. Address all orders or inquiries to the publishers. LUTHER TUCKER & SON, ALBANY, N. Y. GRAPE. ADIRONDAC THE EARLIEST AND BEST GRAPE KNOWN, ripening two weeks earlier than any other good Grape. Possessing a most delicious flavor-in fact, equal to the most delicate hot-bouse Grape. It originated at the base of the Adirondac range of moun tains, on the shore of Lake Champlain. It is believed to possess all the requisites to establish its character as the Earliest and Best Native Grape. PRICE-Good 1-year old vines, $3; a limited number of 2-year old vines, at $5; all cut back to three or four eyes. Single vines may be forwarded to any point in the United States at one cent per ounce→ larger packages by Express, Address, with remittance, JOHN W. BAILEY, WILLIAM J. PETTEE, Lakeville, Conn. PREMIUM CHESTER COUNTY WHITES.— THOMAS WOOD continues to ship to any part of the Union these celebrated HOGS in pairs not akin, at reasonable terms. Address PENNINGTONVILLE, Chester Co., Pa. April 3-wly-June 1-mly. NEW-YORK STATE TILE WORKS Near the Corner of Lark & Lydius-Sts., Albany, N. Y., WM. M. BENDER, Proprietor. GEO. JACKSON, Superintendent. Tile, over 13 inches in length, by the cargo, or in the smallest quanti The subscriber is prepared to furnish Round, Sole and Horse-Shoe ty on demand, at prices that he will defy any other parties to under. sell him. He will warrant his tile hard burnt, and to fit close at the joints and altogether superior to any made in the United States. All tile delivered on board of cars and boats in this city free of charge. Price list sent on application. N. B.-Drainage to any extent and at any place done by contract and tile furnished for the same. Ap 10-w-Jy 1-mlyr. Also DRAINING TILE MACHINES for sale, of the latest improv. ed PATTERNS. For further particulars address as above. 344 345 837 CULTIVATO R FOR 1 8 6 3. This Periodical enters upon its thirtieth year, with 1863. It is now made up from the COUNTRY GENTLEMAN-those articles being particu. 355 335 larly selected which shall present in each number the greatest variety 336 of brief practical hints and suggestions, calculated to be of the widest 336 interest and most general utility. It has long been the belief of the 338 Editors that what one farmer has done another can do-bence their 340 aim is to transcribe, either themselves or through their correspon. 340 dents, the exact systems which the best and most successful of our farmers are now practically following. by which they have made money and enriched their soils-to explain the modus operandi, and set others in the way of following the example. We may assert with 349 out exaggeration, that it contains scarcely a page, from January to 352 December, on which may not be found some Fact from the Actual 352 Practice of the writer, of far greater real value to the careful reader 354 than the year's subscription. 343 346 347 347 354 354 355 357 334 337 349 The Cultivator is Published Monthly, All subscriptions beginning with the January number, and forms an annual volume of nearly four hundred large octavo pages. Single Copies 50 Cents per Annum, Payment strictly in advance. Clubs are presented with the ANNUAL Winter Management of Breeding Ewes, by GEORGE BACHELDER, 353 REGISTER OF RURAL AFFAIRS, containing 144 Pages, and 150 En Live Stock at the New-York State Fair, Live Stock at the Provincial Fair of Canada West,. Live Stock at the Connecticut State Fair,. Ten copies of THE CULTIVATOR, and ten of the RURAL REGISTER, Address letters of inquiry, or orders accompanied with the cash, to 346 BACK VOLUMES OF THE CULTIVATOR. 342 THE THIRD SERIES OF THE CULTIVATOR was commenced in 1853, 351 from which time all the volumes can now be supplied. Price, bound in muslin, if sent by mail, postpaid, $1-if sent by Express, or other. 329 wise, at the expense of the purchaser, 75 cents. The ten volumes, completed with December, 1862, may be had for $7.50 and constitute A FARMER'S LIBRARY In themselves-furnished as they are each with a complete Index and presenting the collective information and experience of so many AYRSHIRES-Practical Farmers. View of State Fair Grounds... 344 | Apple Picker,.. Cora-Horse, Fruit Ladder,. HOROUGH-BRED THOROUGH-BRED 352 349 ONE AND TWO YEAR OLD BULLS. THE HE HORSE AND HIS DISEASES. Embracing his history and varieties, breeding and management, and vices; with the diseases to which he is subject, and the remedies best adapted to their cure. By Robert Jennings, V. S. To which are add. MPORTANT TO FARMERS AND ed Rarey's method of taming horses, and the law of warranty as ap plicable to the purchase and sale of the animal. Illustrated by nearly 100 engravings. Price $1.25 by mail, postpaid. For sale by LUTHER TUCKER & SON, Co. Gent. Office, Albany, N. Y. THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL With Practical Directions for Laying Out a Farm and Erecting Buildings, Fences, and Farm Gates. Embracing also the Young Far. mer's Workshop: giving full directions for the selection of good Farm and Shop Tools, their Use and Manufacture, with numerous Original Illustrations of Fences, Gates, Tools, etc., and for performing nearly every branch of farming operations. By S. EDWARDS TODU. Price $1.25, by mail post paid. For sale by L. TUCKER & SON, Co. Gent, Office, Albany, NY. DOWNING'S FRUIT AND FRUIT TREES. per 35,000 one yea paid, at $1.75. PUBLISHED BY LUTHER TUCKER & SON well-the locomotive on the railroad, for instance. But 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 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 SERIES was commenced in 1853, and the nine volumes for 1853, 4, 5, 6, year, is issued by the same publishers. it must not be forgotten that the cost of making a single one, strong enough, is sufficient to buy a good two-hundred acre farm, in some of our best farming regions-and that a locomotive, instead of being subjected to the irregular and jerking obstructions that impede plows, glides over a road built expressly for its transit, and almost as smooth as glass. An occasional block of granite on the track or stick of timber, if repeated a few hundred times daily, would make short work of the best fifteen-thousand dollar engine. The mowing and reaping machine is rather complex, The Cultivator & Country Gentleman. but yet it will run for years-is not this an exception? COMPLEX MACHINERY. In recently looking over the various implements and machines at the New York State Fair at Rochester, we were never more forcibly impressed with the truth that simple machines are a success, and complex ones a failure, other things being equal, or the machines having a fair share of merit otherwise. As always occurs on such occasions, a number of contrivances were exhibited, the ingenuity of which, the inventors seemed to think, depended on the curious arrangement of a great many parts. There was a water drawer, as an example, so complex, that it was quite a trade to learn how to manage it. There were several churns, encumbered with gearing, and some curious combinations of perpendicular and horizontal, and rotary and reciprocating motions; but while all of them would doubtless make good butter in good hands, if they did not churn it too rapidly, it is hardly probable that they would stand ten years of service and come out with so good a reputation as the old dasher churn or Kendall's simple barrel. No-for it must be observed that the obstruction which it has to encounter, is soft grass or straw, through which the keen edges of the blades run like a hot knife through butter-the process is totally different from that of the share of a plow finding its way among stones and hard soil. Besides, the mowing machine, although consisting of many parts, is simple in operating, consisting essentially of the vibrating motion of a single serrated knife. Any locomotive plow, for these reasons, will be difficult in practice. A fixed locomotive, working long horizontal cables with plows, involves so much machinery, that it is doubtful whether it will ever be brought into long-tested, profitable practice. A harrow and horse rake may not seem simple contrivances, because consisting of many parts; but they are both essentially quite so, for those different parts are firmly secured together so as to form one solid piece. A curry comb, and a hair brush, although having hundreds of teeth, are really but one part, in their use. We often admire the simplicity of the crowbar and handspike-implements that will be in extensive and There are several conditions to the rule that simple poular use, as long as human muscles exist, and labor is machines are valuable, and complex ones failures. It essential to human existence and comfort. The nearer, may be laid down however, as nearly universal, that any therefore, that every new invention approaches these machine requiring a hard strain or irregular severe work, admirable and time-honored contrivances, the more likely must be simple. The plow is of this character. There it will prove valuable, be widely adopted, and descend to is a constant pressure when it is at work, of several hun-posterity. Mr. Howes dred pounds, and this pressure is constantly fluctuating, USE OF FISH MANURE.-At the recent State House disand sometimes very suddenly increased by a large stone. cussion on manures, reported in the N. E. Farmer, seveNothing but a simple affair would stand this pounding and ral members spoke of the use of fish manure. knocking, and jerking and relaxation of force. Convert of Marshfield, said Daniel Webster spread fish upon his the plow to a complex machine, and it would soon be land, but it burnt up the soil and brought a prodigious bent or broken or deranged by such severe usage. This lot of flies. Mr. Davis of Plymouth, said the remedy for is the reason that Pratt's Ditching Machine proved a failure, although working well while every part remained unbent and uninjured. Rotary digging machines will probably share the same fate, for the same reason. But there are some complex machines that succeed this was composting-otherwise, on light soils, fish would used fish as a manure-the flies they drew only annoyed burn up all the vegetation. Mr. Hood of Somerset, had people out of doors; they never entered the house. The subject is one deserving more attention from sea-side farmers. EXAMPLE IN AGRICULTURE. "If men are to be made intelligent," says Henry Ward Beecher, "give them specimens of intelligence." And he illustrates this influence of example as follows: Let a man go into a village where the houses are all going to decay, where the fences are all tumbling down, and where no pains are taken with trees and flowers, and build a neat house, and enclose his grounds with a good fence, and tastefully decorate his yard with comely trees and beautiful flowers, and his example will be a blessing to the place. It will not be three years before there will be twenty neat houses, with good fences, and yards decorated with trees and flowers, as the result of his judicious outlay of means. The taste of the whole village will be educated and improved by the influence that he will exert through the instrumentality of the advantages which he possesses over them. We have observed the same thing in agriculture. When a thorough practical farmer goes into a neighborhood of worn out" farms, and engages in the work of reclaiming and improving his new purchase, his success is sure to awaken a spirit of inquiry, and his example can but exert an improving influence upon all who witness or hear of it. He is seen to grow better crops than his neighbors on a soil which has been comparatively sterile heretofore, and the methods pursued are sought out by those around him. It is found that he does not grow crop after crop of wheat, corn or grass on the same field, but he grows good crops of these products upon different fields in a series of years, entering at once on a system of rotation. He introduces new and improved varieties of grains and seeds, the products of which are seen at a glance to be better than those commonly grown—at least they command a better price in market. The same is true of his orchard and garden. Better fruits and finer vegetables are introduced, such as at once attract the attention of the observer. The improved breeds of live stock with their better care and feeding, cannot fail to gain the notice of all around him. With improved plows and other implements of tillage he accomplishes a more thorough cultivation of the soil, giving a deep and mellow seed bed, insuring the crops against the excess of drouth or moisture, and bringing abundant crops despite "the season" so unreasonably complained of by the careless farmer. But as the real basis of improvement he is particularly careful in making and saving manure, seeking in every way to increase the fertility of his soil-to feed his crops, that they may produce large and profitable returns for his care and labor. An example of clean culture is also given, and it is seen how much more the soil can do for the farmer's crop if no self-sown intruding weeds are allowed to rob it of its proper sus tenance. who can not only tell how to work profitable results, but draw their illustrations from their own experience. Though no period in the history of agriculture has been without its examples of productive farming, at no period, on the broad acres tilled by American industry, have so many bright spots shown out to gladden the hearts and encourage the hands of the friends of improvement. As much room as there evidently is for advancement, a comparison of farming now with that of even ten years ago, shows marked progress. May it go on until thorough work shall make our land teem with golden harvests, with the finest flocks and herds in the world, with peace, plenty and universal liberty and intelligence. For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] EARLY EXPERIENCE IN FARMING. MESSRS. EDITORS-I have several times thought I would give you an account of my first crop in the United States. I came on this farm the 31st day of October, 1821. The manure made in the cattle-yard had never been taken out of it, or any part of it, from the time the buildings were first erected. I immediately engaged a man with his horses and wagon to draw out manure at 8 cents per load, I helping to load. I gave ten acres a very heavy manuring. I then thought manure ought to be plowed under as soon as spread, and I hired another man, his team and plow, to do that job for one dollar per acre. Next spring I got a pair of good horses, pulverized the plowed land pretty well, and sowed have bad since. My barley was nearly a complete failbarley, the year (1822) being about as dry a season as we ure. land, that it was entirely worn out, and it was impossible One gentleman who had told me at the time I bought the that I could live on it, said, when he saw the crop of barley-" Did'nt I tell you so? This land will never pay tillage for any erop." Another, who had told me after I bought it, I should name the farm "Hard Scrabble,” as I would have a hard scrabble if I made a living on it, when he saw the barley, said he thought it proved all he said of it. I felt no discouragement, however, as I well knew that owing to the dry season and the manure being plowed under, the barley derived no benefit from the manure. Had I left the manure on the surface through winter, and been much better; or if I had again plowed it in the plowed in spring, I have no doubt the crop would have spring, and turned up the manure so as to have mixed it with the soil by the harrows, it might have been still better. After I took off what barley I could get-(it was so short I could not cut it all with the scythe)-I plowed it as shallow as I could, and harrowed thoroughly. When we got showers the barley vegetated. I then plowed as deep as it was plowed the November previous, turning the black rotted manure up, and sowed with wheat; and the crop was an excellent one-about as good as any I have since raised. with wheat; it also was a fair crop, but I could not afford I also summer fallowed about eight acres, and sowed it to hire help enough to get manure on it, else it would have been as good as the other. These improvements, and many others we might particularize, as remarked before, exert an influence on the farms of those who witness or hear of them. Their owners may cavil for awhile, but the unmistakable signs of prosperity-of the paying nature of the new system of management—will generally influence the most incredulous into some sort of an imitation, which is nearly always These were my two first crops-the one nearly a total followed by better returns, encouraging further progress-failure; the other excellent. and thus the work goes on until the whole neighborhood shows the influence of the example. In this way, and by the constantly recurring lessons of an enlarged experience, a better system of culture has been in part introduced, and thus also diffused and extended. planted little the two first years. But all that is required People told me my land would not raise corn; so I on this land to raise excellent corn, is dung and a thorough pulverizing of the soil before planting, and keeping it thoroughly pulverized as long as a horse and cultivator can go between the rows. That is the secret of raising Those who learn by hearsay, we remarked, are also in- corn here. My corn is very good this season, and I think fluenced. The agricultural fair has its part in this teach-I understand barley is turning out pretty well. Very litgenerally so in this neighborhood; but all crops are good. ing; but its great apostle is the newspaper, filled in large part by the writings of experienced and skillful farmers, tle sown in Western New-York. I never raised much barley, but have raised more for a few years past. Oats [For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] Plowing Wet Grounds in the Fall. As farmers cannot complete all their underdrains in one year, nor usually in ten years, there is a mode of plowing wet fields in autumn, which will improve very much the friability of the soil, and thus be the means of producing a much larger and better crop the next season, than when plowing is performed in the usual way. The first consideration is to lay out the lands for plowing, up and down the slope, as nearly as may be. The slope is sometimes in a diagonal direction across the field, and sometimes a field does not all slope in one direction. But where the ground is decidedly wet, the lands should be up and down the slope, so that the middle furrows may carry off the surplus water more readily than they would were they made across the slope. When wet land is plowed across the slope in late autumn, the surplus water will be retained in a great measure, by settling across the lands, from one middle furrow towards another, by which the soil will be kept well saturated, and sometimes completely flooded with water. In case a field should slope gradually from two directions, and form a shallow valley, the true way would be to plow a land in the lowest part of the valley, and then let the middle furrows of all the lands, up and down the slope or slopes, empty into the main middle furrow. Now that the work is laid out, the next step will be to execute it. If the ground is sod ground, the plowing should be performed-if it be done with a single plowwith lapped furrow-slices, and not with the furrow-slices laid flat. And more than this, the plowing should be done in narrow lands-not more than sixteen or eighteen feet in width. Then, after every land has been finished, adjust the plow for running as deep as the team can draw it, and cut the middle furrows six or eight inches deeper than the rest of the plowing. After this has been done, let the middle furrows be shoveled out, so as to form a free channel for the water, and let the earth which is shoveled out, be spread evenly each way from the middle furrows, over the ridges. One active man with a good round pointed shovel will shovel out a long line of such furrows in a day; and the good effect upon the crops next season where wet lands is treated in this manner, will amply remunerate for the labor bestowed. This kind of work can be performed when the weather is so unfavorable and cold that workmen can do little or nothing else to good advantage. Manuring Meadows. I believe that manuring grass land late in autumn is no longer a subject of doubtful expediency among our best farmers. Well conducted experiments have proved that it is far better to keep manure housed, and apply it, as a top-dressing, late in autumn to grass land, than to apply it in the spring of the year, even if well rotted. Coarse barnyard manure applied as a top-dressing to grass land in the spring, will not increase the crop half as much as the same manure would increase it, where it spread evenly over the surface in the fall. The true philosophy of this matter is here. In autumn everything tends downward into the earth. Grass, stubble, leaves, and all such substances, return back to the soil. The temperature of the weather grows cooler and cooler almost every day; and the various grasses in the soil do not rise to promote vegetation as they do in the spring of the year. Therefore when manure is applied in late autumn almost the entire strength of the manure is carried down into the soil, and there retained as food for plants until the next spring, when new life of plants begins, and long and warm days increase the temperature of the soil; and thus those manurial substances-gases and saltswhich promote the growth of plants, are brought up to the surface of the soil, and taken up by the roots of whatever is allowed to grow upon the soil. But when manure is spread on the surface of the soil in the spring of the year, only a small proportion of the salts and grasses of the manure ever enter the soil; but they are swept away upon every breeze, and almost wholly lost in their efficacy on the crops of him who claims those substances as his own. I have observed for many years past that they who spread their manure on the surface in the spring of the year, promote the growth of their neighbors' grass about as much as they do their own; while, on the contrary, those farmers who spread their manure in the fall, or in November, derive all the benefit that the manure can impart in heavier and better crops the next season. A thin sprinkling of the scrapings of the barnyard and sheds applied in November to grass land will often increase the crop to more than twice the usual amount. This I have often tested, and have never known it to fail. On the contrary I have never been able to perceive but little benefit from manuring grass land in the spring. I have my mind on the meadow of a neighbor who gave one of his meadows a heavy dressing of good manure last April, and I watched it until the grass was mowed, and I am compelled to acknowledge that I could perceive little or no benefit at all arising from the top-dressing. The grass was very light, and yielded, as I judged, not more than one and a half tons of hay per acre. Had that quantity of manure been applied in autumn, no doubt the grass would have yielded more than three tons of hay per acre. Auburn, N. Y. S. EDWARDS TODD. [For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] NOTES FROM LEVI BARTLETT. The Vetch or Tare. MR. CORNELL, in his letter published in Co. Gent. of Sept. 18th, has something to say of the vetch, a plant much grown in England for soiling, and to be fed off by sheep preparatory to the wheat crop. I have read much in the English agricultural papers about the culture and use of the vetch or tare, but have never seen the plant till this season. Last spring I received a small package of seed from the Patent Office, marked "large seeded vetch from France." The seeds were black, in size and form about like a middle sized pea. The seeds were sown in drills, came up, and made a fine growth. They are a straggling, pea-like plant, growing to the length of four or five feet; the stems are stiffer and much stouter than the largest kind of peas. The seed has ripened well. Judging from this French specimen of the vetch, I think it a plant that might profitably precede the wheat crop, Also a good soiling plant. Mr. C., in speaking of the rape especially if fed off by cattle or sheep in July and August. plant says: "The top of the rape resembles the top of the the rape several years, and from seed derived from dif Swede turnip-the root that of the radish." I have grown ferent sources, none of which had roots like a radish, but all had very large, strong and long roots, like the cabbage. Mr. C. is right about the plant not surviving our winters. The White and the Yellow Lupin. I have grown both of the above named Lupins. The seeds of the white variety were obtained from the land of the Pyramids. On good soil they grow to the height of four or more feet, with a stiff, woody stem, half an inch in diame ter, with a branchy top, producing clusters of pods. The yellow lupin does not grow so tall, and throws out nume rous branches from the base of the main stalk. It is much more bushy, leafy plant than the white. It is the yellow lupin that is so extensively grown in many portion of Germany for green manuring. From the limited knowledge I have of the two kinds, I should give the yel |