city. Many that have gained a competency are seeking a home in the country. And young men that a few years since left their father's farm, thinking it would be a fine thing to work in a manufactory or machine shop, are becoming weary of such a life. Although receiving good pay, it is irksome after awhile, to be controlled by the factory bell, in their "goings out and comings in." Very unpleasant to think that the burden of life is to "Eat, work, sleep, and then Eat, work, and sleep again." Hence, discontent arises, and magnifying the evils of their situation, they pine for the free and independent life that the farmer enjoys. And so, many that left the farm and became artisans, return again to the vocation of their early days. Radical changes may sometimes be wise, but they are often disastrous. A person by changing his occupation does not change his character, nor acquire thereby a new accession of energy or wisdom. It requires time for one to adapt himself to a new situation or a new pursuit ; there are disappointments to meet, and evils to encounter that imagination had not suggested, and many have verified in their own experience the sentiment of Watts, "It is a poor relief we gain, To change the place and keep the pain." take the Cultivator; but I am speaking of those who have skinned their farms till the bones begin to stick out, in the shape of mortgages. Now I farmed it one year in this way, and cleared about $200. This set me to thinking, the result of which was (after long consultation with the Cultivator, old and new volumes,) the sale of my light teams and the purchase of heavy ones. I rigged my plows with wheels, obtained labor-saving machines, cleaned out the manure from my yards twice a year, plowed it in once, and then plowed some two inches deeper, thus mixing the manure and subsoil together. The result of this different management was $400 profit. I now keep three books; one a memorandum-book, in which is noted everything that needs doing; one a day. book, in which I note what has been done each day, and one for accounts. There are a few things that are very important to farmers here: 1st, to save manure; 2nd, stock their farms to clover; 3d, deep and thorough plowing. L. D. WATKINS. Elba, Mich. Farmers should Read. MESSRS. EDITORS-As this is the season for study and mental improvement with farmers, it is to be hoped that it will be improved to the best advantage. Could the body of farmers in the several states, imThe "sign of the times," if we read them aright, do not indicate so great a degree of prosperity as has been prove their leisure time in the study of the farm, and in enjoyed for a few years past. Should there be a still gaining general knowledge, a greater impulse would be greater depression in the manufacturing interest, other given to improved agriculture than all the "Fairs” have interests will also suffer, and there will be greater in-done in the last five years. It is true our yearly fairs ducements to engage in agricultural pursuits, as those always give promise of the means of living. Therefore it would be unwise for farmers, at present to think of "selling out" and changing their vocation. W. L. EATON. Good and Bad Farming. please the eye and improve the mind, and help to keep up a friendly feeling among farmers. Yet it is the study of the farm by the farmer, that leads way the to permanent improvements. Examples from intelligent farmers go a great way in introducing improved methods. Yet there are but few farmers who make improvements, unless they are in all respects reading and thinking men. Of all classes of laboring men, farmers have the most leisure in course of the year, and they ought to be the best educated. It has been the practice, in what are called the "Professions," for men to spend years in close mental application to fit themselves for their calling. And what business is followed which requires a more varied study than that of agriculture? That it is generally carried on by a scanty supply of "head-work,” EDS. CULTIVATOR-Having long been a reader of your journal, and having grown up under its teachings, I take this opportunity to let you know what I am about. The farm I now occupy, contains over 500 acres, 200 of which are under improvement, 100 are marsh, and the rest timber and pasture land. The soil is composed of a rich | black loam, mixed with fine gravel. This being my second years' experience as a farmer, you will not expect great things. In giving you a description, I shall draw | I am ready to admit. But this does not prove that it a picture of farming as it is done in our neighborhood, with few exceptions. In the first place as manure demands our first attention, we manage it in the following manner. Our straw, (of which we have great quantities,) is stacked on the ground, and pulled out and trod under foot by cattle. These huge piles are left to ferment one, two, or three years, till they become less bulky, and then you hear farmers say-" manure does no good"-never thinking that in the exposure it has been subjected to, it has lost much of its fertilising property. Next comes plowing for spring crops, which is done by beginning somewhere in a lot and going somewhere else on the other side, without any regard to width of land or straightness of ridge. The plows are without wheels, and are drawn by two light horses or oxen, at a depth of from three to five inches. There are some exceptions to this kind of management among those who is, or should be necessarily so. It only proves that the farmer is willing to plod on from year to year at a hap hazard rate, with a less amount of knowledge of his business than would satisfy any other class of men. I am often surprised, in asking farmers to take and read an agricultural paper, to hear them reply that they would take it, but they have not the time to read it. In nine cases out of ten, the plain English of this is they have not the will or disposition to read. The worst of all excuses that the farmer can plead, is that he has not the time to read. Every individual has time to spend well or ill, as his tastes dictate. That farmer who does nothing more than dig and delve, from the beginning to the end of the year, lives to a very small purpose indeed. There is a satisfaction found in reading and improving the mind, which can only be appreciated when it is experienced. The farmer who only reads his weekly newspa. per, during the long winter evenings, knows very little of the economy of time in reading. Let him reduce his | having been cooled some hours, is scalded over a very reading to a system and he will be astonished at the slow fire, and then again cooled. "The cream is taken amount of agricultural and other reading that he can off from 24 to 30 hours from the time of milking, as master in one winter. But if any reading must have the needed. Cream from milk thus managed, is deliciouspreference, let it be that which relates to the farm. L. too good to talk about—and so rich and thick that I have DURAND. Derby, Ct., Jan. 28, 1851. seen a common dinner-plate laid on the pan on the cream, without breaking its surface." Destruction of Quack Grass. There are few foes of cheap and easy cultivation so unconquerable, by common means, as quack grass. Its horny headed runner pushes its way readily through all sorts of soils, not stopping for a potato, through whose tubers I have twice known it to penetrate. A large amount of labor is often spent upon quack grass to little effect. The secret of its cheap and ready destruction lies in hoeing it frequently and thoroughly in dry weather, in connection with a crop that admits of being worked among all summer. Indian corn and cabbage are those crops in the cultivation of which I have frequently eradicated quack in a single season. On small spots, and amid the culture of delicate vegetables, it is undoubted. ly best to extract it from the soil with the spade and rake, removing and burning the whole. But faithful hoeing and shaking it up, in dry weather, in the cultivation of the abovementioned crops, will certainly destroy it in a much cheaper manner. C. E. G. Utica, Jan. 23, 1851. DOMESTIC ECONOMY. Dairy Matters. SCALDED OR "CLOUTED" CREAM.-A practice has been long pursued in Devonshire, England, and has been to some extent introduced in this country, of scalding the milk for the purpose of making butter. It is a common opinion that the scalding process increases the quantity of cream and butter from a given quantity of milk. But in the report of a late survey of the county of Somerset, published in the Transactions of the Royal Ag. Society for 1850, there is an account of an experiment, by which it appears that there is no increase in the weight of butter by scalding the milk. Two lots of milk, of twelve quarts each, were taken-the one scalded, and the other set in the ordinary mode-the butter from each was carefully weighed and then subjected to analysis by Prof. WAY. The analysis showed that the proportion of pure butter in that made from the scalded milk was not greater than from the other. It appears, however, that there are some practical advantages at tached to the scalding process, which are "that the butter is more quickly made by stirring with the hand or with a stick; and that it keeps much longer." The analysis throws little or no light on the question why the scalding process should add to the keeping quality of the butter. The advantage in churning is attributed to the bursting of the bubbles of casein which contain the oily matter, by the heat, thus facilitating the process of separation; and it is probable that this perfect separation of the oil from the casein, is the cause of the butter from the scalded milk keeping better. PROFITABLE Cow.-JOHN NICHOLS, of Salem, offered at the last exhibition of the Essex county (Mass.) Ag. Society, a cow seven years old, which he stated had given in the preceding sixteen months, 6,100 quarts of milk. Of this quantity, he states that he sold and used 1,274 quarts at six cents per quart, $76.44, and 4,826 quarts at five cents per quart, $241.30—making a total of $317.74. The expense of feeding the cow in the same time, was stated at $104,74,-leaving a profit of $213. Her average yield of milk for the sixteen months, was twelve and a-half quarts per day. She calved twice during that time: viz: April 29th, 1849, and March 7th. 1850. ANOTHER VERMONT DAIRY.-The Green Mountain Freeman states that E. MARSH has made, the past season, from four cows. 934 lbs. butter, and 100 lbs. cheese, besides the milk and cream used in a family of two persons; from the skimmed milk, and about eight bushels of corn, 648 lbs. of pork. PROFITS OF SIX Cows-VALUE OF SKIMMED-MILK.JOEL EDMUNDS, of Framingham, Mass., gives in the Plowman, an account of the products obtained from six cows in 1847. In the first place he fatted and sold from them seven calves. He sold during the season, 963 lbs. butter, and 117 gallons of milk. In April he purchased three shotes which he fed entirely on the skimmed milk of the six cows-not allowing them even "the crumbs that fell from their owner's table." The hogs were sold for $44,19 more than he paid for them. He sums up the proceeds as follows: Butter sold 963 lbs. at 21 ets. per lb.,. Seven calves,.. Milk, 117 gallons,. Increase on pork,. Butter used in family, probably 75 lbs.,. Deduct for one calf purchased,... $208 65 44 85 12 74 44 19 16 25 $326 68 1 25 $325 43 LARD CANDLES.-A correspondent of the Michigan Farmer, gives the following method of making candles of hog's lard, which he says prove of best quality. Put all the lard, say enough for 5 lbs. of candles, in the smelter; after it attains a heat of about 200 Fahr. throw in 3 or 4 ounces of lime, and about an ounce of aqua. fortis, and then mould them. The lime purifies the grease and the aquafortis hardens it. TO KEEP PRESERVES, apply the white of an egg with a suitable brush to a single thickness of white tissue paper, with which cover over the jars, overlapping the edges an inch or two. No tying is required. The whole will become, when dry, as tight as a drum. NEW-WATER CEMENT.-It is said a very strong and valuable water cement has been made by Gen. Pasley of the British army, consisting merely of four parts by weight of chalk and five of blue clay. According to the SCALDING MILK.-A correspondent of the Dollar experiments made to prove its strength, it must possess Newspaper, says that in Cornwall, England, milk, after | extraordinary tenacity. The above is a view of an Iron Bridge, invented by B. SEVERSON, of Schenectady, N. Y. It is formed of cast and wrought iron, and in addition to the requisite strength and durability necessary in such structures, has much beauty and neatness of style. A bridge on this plan has been constructed at Schenectady, and has been subjected to a severe test as to strength. According to a certificate, signed by the Mayor of Schenectady and others, this bridge, which is 72 feet span, and weighs 144 tons, was first tried by putting on it 35 tons of iron. which was left there for two days. The weight was then increased to 42 tons, and left for thirty hours, when a careful examination was made of the effect produced on the bridge, and the result, as the gentlemen say, was, "that, although we think the test amply sufficient for a road bridge, yet we believe it falls far short of a full test of its ultimate strength." They add-"We consider it a strong, cheap and durable bridge, and that it may be made to span great lengths with sufficient strength for all bridging purposes, and the design is more beautiful than any one that has ever come under our notice." Messrs. CLUTE, of Schenectady, will furnish any particulars, or execute orders for this bridge. all the crevices. cessive coats of hot coal tar, each followed with a coverDURABLE ROOFS.-Roofs of buildings, according to ing of sand, care being taken to introduce the tar into shingles. Old and leaky roofs are cured by two sucthe pitch is hot. The cost is about the same as with ed with hot pitch, and with a coating of fine gravel while covering with sheets of tarred paper, which is then coverthe Genesee Farmer, are now successfully made, by first happen to have short purses, and there are many plain republicans to confer their presents on eminent better, and less like worshipping rank and royalty, for fine shirt for Prince Albert. Would it not look a little of a jar of preserved peaches for Queen Victoria, and a ticles sent from Cincinnati to the World's Fair, a notice such? men of science, literature, or philanthropy, who may PRESENTS TO ROYALTY.-We observe among the ar The accompanying cnt is a representation of a seed drill, on which important improvements are said to have been made by LYMAN BICKFORD and HENRY HUFFMAN, of Macedon, Wayne county, N. Y. The cut gives a perspective view of the machine, with its external gearing, &c. It is said to operate with great accuracy, being readily governed as to the amount of seed sown; and is also recommended on account of its simplicity and completeness of construction. Particulars can be learned by addressing the persons above named. The Borticultural Department. CONDUCTED BY J. J. THOMAS, MACEDON, N. Y. Pyramidal Pear Trees. The following description, given in the Horticulturist, by its Editor, A. J. DOWNING, of the most perfect specimen, perhaps, of pyramidal training in existence, cannot fail to be interesting to all those who have a keen eye for seeing every thing done in the most perfect manner, and who are not satisfied with half-way performances of any kind. At the same time, the mode of pruning is so distinctly described as to possess much practical value. The most beautiful sight, in the way of hardy fruit tree culture, that greeted our eyes last season, in Europe, was that of the Pyramidal Pear Trees in the Jardin des Plantes. One side of this great national garden, which, with its parterres, schools and museums, is a vast collection of all that is interesting in Natural History, is a piece of ground of perhaps an acre, somewhat away from the principal walks. It is separated from the rest of the garden, (to which the public has the freest access,) by an iron railing and a gate, which is kept locked. This is the "school of pears"-that is to say, the garden in which MONSIEUR CAPPE, the head of the fruit depart. ment, has his house, and more especially his beautiful pear trees-to which he has given up almost the whole of the area allotted to him. It was September when we were in this garden. We were weary with a day of sight-seeing, and a long ramble through the other different departments of the garden, and though very desirous of seeing M. CAPPE'S trees, which have become rather famous as fine specimens of the art of pruning, and had come provided with a note to him which would open the iron gate where the trees of knowledge stood-we had almost determined before we reached it, that we would be content with a passing glance from the outside, at what we supposed would present a familiar appearance to our eyes. But a passing glance through the iron railing soon made us feel that M. CAPPE was not a man to be neglect ed. And patiently we waited till one of the garcons had found him and delivered our note, in order that we might enter the now unclosed gate, and make the acquaintance of the master of pear trees. We do not wish to depreciate the magnificent pictures in the Louvre, but we must still be allowed to say, that in their way, M. CAPPE's pear trees are as well worth seeing as any of the great master-pieces of art there. Nobody (with a soul) would think of comparing a Poussylvan landscapes, (in which you can almost feel the SIN with a pear tree, yet what one of POUSSIN's grand tempest that sways the tops,) is to a landscape on a signboard, M. CAPPE's pyramidal pear trees are to the pear trees of common gardens, both in England and America. Our readers must imagine a level plot of ground, marked off into beds or borders, about ten feet wide, with a narrow alley between. In a straight line in the middle of these beds stand the pear trees-about ten feet distant from each other. And such pear trees! so symmetrically shaped, forming perfect pyramids of foliage in the finest tapering lines from top to bottom; so healthy and luxuriant, with not a leaf nor branch wanting, and with the utmost possible vigor and beauty of growth, as if not "nice art" had educated them into this shape, but rather they had grown so because it was their nature, and they could not help it; and so laden all over with the finest and fairest fruit-golden, orange, dark bronze red, or tinted with the ruddiest tints of autumn; in short, so altogether the complete and perfect thing as garden pear trees, that we strongly CAPPE has a better undersuspect that good MONSIEUR standing with mistress Pomona, than any of us, her Anglo devotees. We had a very interesting chat with M. CAPPE his trees, which we shall about the management of benefit of our readers. We give the substance of for the may say, in the first place, Cappe's Pyramidal Pear Tree. that the climate of Paris is so much like our own, side side shoots, which are pinched back in the same that any lesson in open air culture learned there, is manner every summer. worth twice as much as if learned in England. In fact, In order to keep the tre the pear tree grows but indifferently as an open stand. finely proportioned, the eye ard in many parts of England-while M. CAPPE's trees, of the pruner must be a almost all of them, had made shoots at the ends of the nice one, that he may, with branches, on all sides, about two feet in length. They a glance, regulate the prunhad been planted from 10 to 18 years, and were from ing of the terminal brancha dozen to eighteen feet high. None of them were on es or leaders, which as we quince stocks-though Mr. C. admitted the value of have just said, are shortenthe stocks for particular varieties. Neither does heed back in March-for then practice root-pruning, but rather smiled at our account is the time to adjust any of the importance attached to it in England by some extravagancies of growth of the best cultivators-saying "it is all very well for a which the tree may have cold, moist country-but neither you nor us need it." run into, on either side: and His pear trees are all worked on pear stocks. They are in the summer the balance planted in a good mellow loam-simply trenched two of growth is adjusted by and a half feet deep, and about eight feet wide, and pinching the side shoots when they are loosened in the spring, the whole top of that start out nearest the the border is formed into a hollow, shaped like a shallow ends of the branches, quite Fig.3. pan, two or three inches deep. Over the surface of this short, say an inch and a half, while those that start is spread a mulching, an inch deep, of decomposed barn- near the bottom of the branch, (or the center of yard manure-which not only shades and keeps the soil the tree,) where they have less nourishment, are left cool, but every time the rain falls and fills the basin con- from four to five inches long. taining this dressing or mulching of manure, it carries down to the roots their best food. It will be remembered that the soil of Paris is calcareous, and there is, probably, no lack of lime for the growth of the pear. So much for general culture. Now a word as to pruning, which is the great point in which the French excel us-it being in short, the education of the tree. "Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined." M. CAPPE's method of pruning, which he was good enough to explain to us very clearly, is simple, and easily understood. Perhaps we should say it is easily explained with the knife in hand, and the tree before one. But as our thousands of readers are not within such convenient reach of the eye, we must do the best we can to make it clear by words. M. CAPPE Confines his pruning to three seasons of the year. In the month of March, or before the buds start, he shortens back with the knife all the leading shoots, fig. 2, a. a. that is, the terminal shoots at the end of each side branch. Of course, this forces out not only a new leading shoot at the end of the branch, but side shoots, b, b, at various places on the lower part of the shoot. These side shoots are left to grow till the end of May. They have then pushed out to about four or five inches in length. The ends of all these side shoots are then pinched off, leaving only about an inch and a half at the bottom of the shoot. Fig. 3, shows one of the branches, with the side shoots, as they are at the end of June. The dotted lines, b, b, show the point to which these shoots should be pinched off. b The terminal or leading shoot, c, is left entire, in order to draw up the sap, which would otherwise force all the side shoots into new growth. Notwithstanding this precaution, in Fig. 2. luxuriant seasons the side shoots will frequently push out new shoots again, just below where they were pinched. This being the case, about the last of August M. CAPPE shortens back these new side shoots to about an inch and a half. But this time he does not pinch them off. He breaks them, and leaves the broken end for several days attached and hanging down, so that the flow of sap is not so suddenly checked as when the branch is pinched or cut off-and the danger of new shoots being forced out a third time is thereby effectually guarded against. The object of this stopping the side branches, is to accumulate the sap, or, more properly, the organizable matter in these shortened branches, by which means the remaining buds become fruit-buds instead of wood-buds. They also become spurs, distributed over the whole tree, which bear regularly year after year-sending out new Understanding this mode of pruning, nothing is easier than to form pyramidal pear trees of the most perfect symmetry and beauty of form. But in order to have the branches regularly produced from the ground to the summit, you must plant a tree which is only a couple of feet high, so that you can form the first tier of branches quite near the ground, by cutting back the leader at the very outset-for if the tree is once allowed to form a clean body or stem, of course it is impossible afterwards to give it the requisite shape and fullness of branches at the bottom. Our readers will see that we are not giving this account for the benefit of our orchardists. It is a refinement in horticulture which belongs to the fruit garden-but which well repays the amateur or practical gardener, both by the increased fruitfulness and beauty of the trees. From the especially healthy condition of the trees in the Jardin des Plantes, as well as from other analogous instances, we are led to believe that by the fine clothing of foliage which protects the bark of the trunk and branches from the violence of the sun, these Pyramidal trees will be found less liable to many diseases that attack the pear tree in climates like France and the United States, than when the trunks of the trees are fully exposed to the sun. New Fruits. The last annual report of the Fruit Committee of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, gives the following results of the experiments in the culture of several new fruits of celebrity, in that region: NORTHERN SPY.-Specimens raised in Massachusetts were exhibited for the first time the past season. They appear to have been much inferior in size and quality to those raised in Western New-York. The results of a single season, and for the first year of bearing, are not however generally reliable. DOYENNE BOUSSOCK.-This pear, which resembles the White Doyenne, but of larger size, has borne for several years, is highly commended by the Committee, and appears to be worthy of extensive cultivation." BEURRE D' ANJOU and PARADISE D' AUTOMNE-"fine pears, that do not appear to have received that attention from cultivators, to which they are justly entitled." BEURRE LANGELIER-" gives promise of maintaining in this country its European reputation-a handsome fruit, of good size, yellow color, with a fine blush in the sun,-melting, juicy, and of an agreeable taste-whose season is January and February, though some of the specimens this year ripened in November." |