UBLISHED BY LUTHER TUCKER & SON But the equally practical writer on this subject in Mor

pu

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

free to the Agent, Five Dollars,

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 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.

ton's Cyclopædia, informs us that in Hampshire, England, 64 waters running over calcareous soils, and hard, or abounding in carbonate of lime, are used with great success." The former authority, Mr. DICKINSON, takes pains to render the water with which he irrigates, thick and turbid, in order to make it float a top-dressing of finely divided soil all over his meadows; but the English writer carefully distinguishes between the irrigation of meadows and of arable land, and while he says that on the latter "the more thick and turbid the water, the better,"-asserts, as the result of English experience, "that,

The Cultivator & Country Gentleman. for grass land, the clearer the water the better; that cal

HYDROPATHY ON THE FARM.

It is not an inappropriate season of the year to say a word or two with regard to IRRIGATION. It has been so often written about, as a recondite and costly process, with elaborate calculations of frightful length, and erudite citations of foreign systems, all the way from Italy to China, -that our Farmers are too much in the habit of regarding the very word as a sort of bugbear, rising on the view amidst the exhalations of submerged rice fields, or pointing with spectral hand to plains and valleys checkered over with Egyptian conduits and intersected with Dutch

canals.

careous matter, taken up in a form not to render the water turbid, is almost the only beneficial admixture," and that "when the rivers are turbid from quantities of silt, or of finely divided clay and peat, they injure the grass, especially the former [silt,] but streams flowing clear and pure from the hills are of benefit, and especially from hills abounding in lime."

We are thus met at the outset-in pressing upon the farmer the importance of Irrigation-with a very difficult question to answer: "How am I to know whether the water I have, is of the right kind for the purpose?"

A German pupil of Baron LIEBIG's has lately written an authoritative exposition of the Laws of Agriculture according to the theory of that distinguished investigator, and the only one of them all which he emphasizes in italics, is this: "There is no absolute rule in Agricul

case." If all of Liebig's philosophy was based on as sure a foundation and backed by as abundant testimony, as this very sensible conclusion is, he would have had fewer critics buzzing about his ears, during the past twenty years.

Now, without being altogether disciples of the Grafenberg school, we may yet be permitted to doubt whether the true usefulness of Water is quite appreciated as an ture-everything depends on the circumstances of the agent in maintaining and promoting either the health of men or the fertility of soils. Its efficiency in both respects, has not as yet been fully explained. That certain Springs which Nature has warmed and medicated in the inner chambers of Earth, the kind mother and nurse of And our only reply to the interrogatory supposed, is us all, should possess curative properties of their own, is the one which it is so easy to give, and often so difficult to not so strange; nor do we wonder that rivers which have act upon, namely, that each must judge for himself accordwashed down the soluble wealth of many a remote hill-ing to the circumstances in which he is situated. But side, to lavish it on the flats that immediately skirt their with regard to Irrigation it seems tolerably safe to decide course, should render these favored spots inexhaustibly in the affirmative, unless there are unmistakable indications productive. But what virtue there may pertain to clear to the contrary-we should be inclined to throw the burand limpid water, in itself considered, as a restorative den of evidence, as a general rule, upon the negative of upon the human frame, or as a fertilizer upon the land, the question. it is perhaps not so easy to determine.

The latter question, particularly, is complicated by the conflict of authorities and of experience. Our friend, the present Minister of the United States at the Court of Nicaragua, is fully convinced that none but soft water will fertilize the soil, and confidently points to the fact that Nature herself draws this distinction in sending down no other kind in her vivifying rains and refreshing showers,

Whether it may be expedient to irrigate with muddy water, or not, there can be no doubt that any material of a fertilizing character can be applied to the land by the agency of water more effective than in any other way. The soil, which is capable of filtering the water of our springs to such crystal purity, appears equally well calculated to absorb, or rather attract, from liquid manures every particle of the fertilizing ingredients that may be floating

country we have only from fifty to sixty rainy days in the year, against about one hundred and forty in round numbers in Great Britain.

The conclusion to be derived from these considerations

in them, and the dissolution, partial or complete, of these ingredients appears to adapt them exactly to the requirements of the plant. And as water carriage, as a general rule, is cheaper than land carriage, it would not be at all surprising if the means should ultimately be developed is of carrying our manures over the farm in liquid form, to a much greater extent than has thus far seemed practi-greater, can devise a system by which we shall make up

cable.

It is our belief, to go back to Irrigation pure and simple, that in no other country are there greater reasons or more abundant facilities for its adoption, than throughout many parts of the United States-the former on account of our climate, and the latter because of the frequency of streams which might be employed for the purpose, and because the conformation of the land is so often just what is required to accomplish irrigation at a small cost.

As to the climate of the United States, we are subject to extremes of heat and prolonged drouths, which render our country, as compared with Great Britain, as a general rule, less productive of grasses, and much more in need of artificial supplies of moisture. In fact, irriga tion in Great Britain is so particularly well attended to by the skies, that comparatively little has been done by man in this direction. It is in such countries as "sunny Italy," and southern Spain, and in China, in all of which there are more points of resemblance to our climate, that irrigation has been found the most serviceable, and where it is now most extensively practiced.

that if we, who receive the donations of the clouds so much more rarely, although in a quantity absolutely

for their rarity by applying moisture to the land for ourselves as it may be needed, we shall go much farther in combining the advantages of a warm sun with those of plentiful moisture, than is possible in a country where the former can never be secured by ingenuity nor bought by money, and where the latter can be increased, but never diminished, by the appliances of art. Heat and moisture are jointly essential to the greatest luxuriance of vegetable growth-neither can accomplish much without the cooperation of the other.

In the frequency with which our farmers can command springs or streams upon a higher level than many of the slopes upon their farms, they possess a great natural advantage for purposes of irrigation.

There are half-a-dozen instances in the employment of Irrigation for farm purposes which we have personally examined, which among others seem to be here especially worthy of notice-four in Great Britain and the other two in this country. Of all of them we have already written at some length in the columns of the COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, so that our allusions now shall be very brief, and merely to recall in a single article what has before been said upon this important topic at various intervals.

The examples to which we refer are those upon the estates of Lord HATHERTON, THOMAS HORSFALL, Esq., and Mr. MECHI in England, upon the noted Edinboro' meadows in Scotland, and on the farms of Mr. DICKINSON in Steuben county, and Mr. L. D. CLIFT, in Putnam county, in this State. The first-mentioned, that of Lord Hatherton, at Teddesley in Staffordshire, is one of considerable expense, securing however drainage as well as irrigation, together with a large water-power, all from the same outlay. The farm concerned, which, at the time of our visit, and for a long period anteriorly had been under the superintendence of Mr. BRIGHT, a very judicious and skillful manager, embraced over thirteen hundred acres, so situ

Few people are aware how little the amount of rain-fall in the year, has to do with the "moisture" of a climate. As a general rule it may almost be asserted that irrigation is the most necessary where the rain-fall is greatest. Thus we find that in Great Britain the amount of rain precipitated in the year varies from 20 and 22 inches in the eastern and middle counties to 30 in the southern and 40 in the western-with a calculated average for the British Islands of 32 inches. At Florence in Italy it is 41 inches. In the United States, the average, varying with local influences increases as we go southward,* from about 40 inches in New-England and in the North Western States, to 42 in what are now called the "border States," 45 still farther south, and 63 in the latitude of Mobile. Thus the average rain fall in the United States is pro-ated that the drainage outflow from over five hundred bably at least one-third greater than in the United Kingdom, and in many cases fully double. But our rains come in large quantities at once, instead of slowly, and consequently run off more quickly; moreover, during the months in which we have the most rain, namely, August and September, there is a much more rapid evaporation going on, so that the rain which falls is proportionately less available for the purposes of vegetation. Taking the seasons, each by itself, possibly nine persons out of ten would assert that the greatest precipitation occurs in Spring, and the next greatest in Winter, whereas the figures show that the largest amount of moisture falls in Autumn; Summer stands next to Autumn, and Spring is the third, and Winter the fourth and last, on the list. And in this

Of course this statement is only approximatively correct. The zones of equal rain-fall, instead of running east and west, appear to be more nearly N. E. and S. W., so that the belt of 45 inches precipitation, for example, includes part of the shore line of New England and thence runs southwesterly into eastern Virginia and North Carolina, where it strikes inlan dacross Tennessee and Arkansas. But at almost every point there are so many local peculiarities affecting the case, that even such a statement as this is only true in the broadest and most general sense

acres which was originally a sort of elevated swamp, can be collected in a reservoir, carried through a covered conduit half a mile to the farmstead, where it turns a millwheel of 38 feet diameter, and thence passes through a tunnelled channel on to a piece of meadow of 115 acres below, over which it is spread at pleasure by means of permanent channels, and which it has converted from an area comparatively worthless into a never-failing source of grass and bay whatever may he the character of the season. We did not inquire into the details of pecuniary cost and return, but soon after these improvements were first completed, the statement was published that the total cost of underdraining 467 acres, of arranging for the mill, and of the irrigation of eighty-nine acres, had been between thirteen and fourteen thousand dollars, but that the annual rental of the estate was thereby increased over $5,000, so that the handsome interest of thirty-seven per cent. was the clear result of the outlay.

At Mr. HORSFALL's in Yorkshire, the irrigation comes from a little brook into which the sewage of the village of Burley flows, and is simply performed by being admit

The chief object of this article is to call attention to the beneficial results of Irrigation, and the ease with which they are often to be obtained. There is scarcely any other subject more worthy of discussion, and as a considerable -We cannot help repeating the remark in substance, interval has now elapsed since much has been said about with which our notice of the Thorndale shipment to Eng it in our columns, we invite the aid of our correspondents land last year was accompanied, that these animals are to to show whether the practice of Irrigation is extending be spared with great regret from the Short-Horn stock in this and other States, and whether those who may have tried it during the past five years, find its returns upon the degree of labor bestowed, as satisfactory and as remunerative as has been claimed, so far as we are aware, by all who have previously experimented in "Hydropathy on the Farm."

1

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS.

In advocating the collection of Agricultural Statistics, we have frequently urged that the figures presented by the United States census returns once in ten years, are very far,—in the opinion of those best qualified to judge

very far indeed, from giving anything like a correct picture of our agricultural resources and development.

At the risk of wearying our readers by too frequent recurrence to this subject, we have before us an illustration of the foregoing remark, which we cannot pass by unnoticed. The Report of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture for last year, contains the statistics of the State as given in the U. S. Census returns for 1860, together with a comparison between them, and the returns of the State assessors. To this chapter Mr. Secretary FLINT calls our special attention, and we find it fully bears

2.213.315

nearly valueless, except for purposes of comparison, and it is to be regretted that some more perfect plan has not been adopted in these investigations. But so long as the work is entrusted to political favorites, irrespective of for such labor, we may well despair of reaching even an apother qualifications, rather than to persons specially fitted proximation to the truth." * * "The average annual of cheese, about five pounds. And yet these items, and produce of butter per cow, is a little less than seven lbs. ; such as these, are to be laid before our own people, before the people of other states, and before the world, as the results of official inquiries into the present condition of the Agriculture of Massachusetts ["

developments as these, of the good that might be accom Can we have fuller evidence than is afforded by such plished by a National Bureau of Agriculture and Statistics,

which should select as its agents and enumerators men out the statement with which we began. For exampleand to carry out the comparison a little farther than is qualified for the task, who would undertake it intelligentdone in the article before us, we note that the U. S. Cen-ly and carry it out honestly? With such errors in the sus reports the agricultural area of the State as follows: returns of a single State, by no means one of the largest Total Extent of "Improved Land," in acres,.. in the Union, it is easy to conceive how very wide of the do. do. .. Unimproved Land," do. ............ 1,192,296 mark the grand aggregates of the country are very likely 3,405,611 to be. As is intimated above, the only use of our census returns, as they are at present taken, is derived from the supposition that the average of mistakes and incapacity will be about equal in different localities and at dif41,812 ferent periods, and that consequently the figures we have, may fairly serve as the basis of general comparisons. But 38.543 they should not go before those nations of the world from 1.344,914 whom we are deriving, and hope to derive, an immigration 2.397.387 of incalculable value in our national growth, as justly rep

But the State Assessment returns, taken about the same time and for the same year, give us quite a different re

sult, as below:

Acres of Land annually tilled,

do. Orchards, including all kinds of fruit,
Upland Meadow.

do,

do.

do.

Lowland Fresh Meadow,

do.

Salt Meadows...

do.

Pasture Land,..

do.

do.

Woodland not enclosed as pasture..
Unimproved land....

550,183
156,359

265,576

706.542

976,071

767,019 resenting the capacities and the culture of our country. 4,140,477 Either through State or Federal enactments, or both, workThis appears like quite a different territory from that ing in co-operation with each other, we trust that we may referred to in the census returns-there being an area of eventually get more nearly at the truth. 184,000 acres of improved land, and over 550,000 of unimproved, which "Uncle Sam" does not condescend to notice at all. When we come to the domestic animals of the farm, we find quite as striking omissions, with the single exception of swine, the number of which is given in the census as being greater than reported by the

134.475 Seven years ago I was making a cedar fence with stakes
and rider. After setting the stakes without reference to
115.671 size, and having the fence ready for the top pole, I bought
some wire of the size of telegraph wire and annealed it,
2,392 so that it was quite flexible. I got an iron made (a nail
rod is large enough to make it,) six inches long with a
702.285 hole in each end that readily receives the wire, with one
668,628 end made at right angles. With this I loop or coil the
33,657 end around the main wire something as telegraph wires
are fastened. With one hand hold of the small loop, and
the other hold of the main wire, while an attendant brings
the stakes to the desired position, you can draw the wire
to such tension as you desire; then give the wire a short
turn in the loop; then with file cut the wire, and loop
the end back on the main strand. The cost per corner will
If the frost raises
not exceed one and one-half cents.
the stakes, take a beetle, while the ground is soft, and

The article before us calculates that the discrepancies above noted alone make a difference of nearly five millions of dollars in the valuation of the State.

drive them down.

The value of the farms themselves, as well as of the live stock upon them, is often greatly underrated, to judge from individual instances referred to, although there is nothing given which proves the general average for the farming lands of the whole State, to be far out of the way. This is a fraction less than thirty-six dollars and fifty cents per acre. With the facts which are fully proven, before us, however, we can entirely coincide in the reflection that "these returns, while they are of great value relatively, are yet so far from the actual truth, as to be LANE; Secretary, H. P. Kimball.

My staking to which I refer, stands as well to-day as when first made. HIRAM WALKER. Mexico, N. Y.

The Winnebago Co. (III.) Ag. Society has its next Fair at Rockford, Sept. 16-19. President, Dr. H. P.

INQUIRIES ABOUT BARNS.

bearings that may have collected there. If any has adhered to any part of the machine, take an old knife and MESSRS. L. TUCKER & SON-Being about to build a barn on a plan derived from a design on page 130 of scrape it off. Be careful however lest you scrape off the your Annual Register for 1862, I take the liberty of ask-paint from the wood work. Examine all the bolts and ing several questions on points connected with it, answers to which, if convenient, would confer a favor.

1. Would not a separate manure shed be preferable? The space for it in your designs would be otherwise useful. (1.)

2. Are there any objections to the use of rain water from cisterns for horses and cattle? (2.)

3. Is the cistern described on page 139 of same article preferable to a circular one in a corner of the basement? 4. Would either be liable to freezing, and which least

BO?

5. What access is there to the outside one for cleaning, etc.? (3.)

6. The dimensions of my plan being, length 42 feet, depth 35, height 18, what style of roof would best combine cheapness, utility and looks? (4.)

7. Is 14 feet a good width for the threshing floor, the bays and the stables? (5.)

Baltimore Co., Md., April 29.

G.

nuts, and see that they are in perfect order. If you find any broken, take them out and have them mended at once, for you cannot afford to spend time when mowing has commenced. If your machine has been used a year or two, perhaps it would not be amiss to give it a coat of paint. Take your cutter bar and knives, and see that file your knives sharp. I think grinding is the best if the knives are all fast and the bar straight, and grind or you have a thin stone to grind them on. By putting your machine in good order before haying commences, you are ready to commence haying one or two days before your neighbor-who leaves his machine to fix until the day he wants to commence mowing.

To those readers of the COUNTRY GENTLEMAN and CUL

TIVATOR, who have never used a mowing machine, I would suggest that if your land is smooth enough, buy a mowing machine. You will find it a great saving of labor; you can now buy good machines cheap compared with the prices of a few years ago. Good machines are advertised in this paper.

(1.) The object in placing the shed and space for manure in the basement, is economy. The basement of a barn Be sure and have a good horse-rake. Next to the costs only the excavation and wall-a separate building mowing machine in point of labor-saving, is the horserequires the additional expense of roof and some ad- If any are broken, slip in a new one. rake. See that the teeth in your rake are all sound. Hard maple makes ditional wall. The advantages of comprising all the barn the best teeth for horse-rakes. It wears smooth and is a accommodations within a single building are the diminish-good and stiff wood. There are a great many kinds of ed cost of exterior walls and compactness of accommo- horse rakes, but I have never seen any that I liked better dation. Hence, if more room is needed, a larger build- than the revolving rake. It rakes clean and is less liable ing should be erected. Otherwise, there is no serious to get out of order than some of the other kinds. Clean out your barns and sheds. Barns and sheds in objection to a separate building for manure, except the which you intend to mow your grain and hay, should be labor of wheeling to it. thoroughly cleaned of all the hay seed and refuse stuff that will collect about and in them during the winter. barns, you give the rats and mice notice to quit, as it By doing this a week or two previous to filling your leaves no harboring place for them. These and many other things that may be put in proper shape before harvesting commences, will save the trouble of doing it at a time when you have the least time to spare to do it.

(2.) Rain water answers well for cattle, and for horses except a few who are so dainty as not to drink it. Usage however will cause nearly all animals to like it, if it comes from clean roofs, and is kept in frequently cleaned cisterns. It is purer than spring water, so far as relates to mineral ingredients; but brings down some foreign and vegetable matter, which render it less palatable.

(3.) A circular cistern would be more economical of exterior wall material, but would be more difficult to cover properly so as to be secure from any danger of caving in. Both being covered with a foot of earth, they could not freeze. A curb of stone, two feet square, forming what is called a "man-hole," properly covered, would admit cleaning. The best curb is made of chisseled flagging, set on edge, a foot or more high, and reaching the surface of the ground; and a flag-stone fitting the inside and resting on shoulders, at the lower part, and another lying on the top, the intervening space filled with chaff or straw, secures the cistern most completely from the frost. Through this curb, the water pipe may enter, or the pump tube be placed for withdrawing the contents.

(4.) The roofs figured in the Register would be suitable. The truncated gable is a matter of taste, which any one may adopt or reject, as best suits him.

(5.) We see no objection to these dimensions.

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] SEASONABLE SUGGESTIONS.

Now, farmers, is the time to look after your mowing machines, horse rakes, hand rakes, forks, &c. See that they are all in proper order, for seed time has come and harvest will soon be here. Take your mowing machines into your work shops the first leisure or rainy day-take the caps of the boxes, and clean all the gum from the

Rosendale, May, 1862.

S. P. KEATOR.

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] TOBACCO AFTER IT IS DRIED.

A method of curing tobacco after it is dried, generally practiced by farmers in Germany, consists in forming a round stack of the same, turning the points or the thin part of the leaves or blades as much as possible outside, and the thick or stemmy part to the inside of the stack. The idea is to warm the tobacco by its own yet containing veins in the blades, and by a certain sweat to improve moisture. Killing or rather curing the greenness of the the flavor and appearance of the article. When warm enough in the middle or the warmest part of the stack, to bear a hand inside without discomfort of heat, it should be taken apart and that part of the stack not warmed up to the point of sweat, be put in the middle for a like

cure. Care must be taken not to burn it black, or like ash-burned manure, to which purpose it should be frequently examined. When the above point of curing is attained, it may be laid out thinly to cool off and dry, after which it can be put into whatever shape for market, in bales, casks, hogsheads. By the above process the farmers in Germany manage to cure tobacco, and sell when very successful, the same, at prices often equalling the be in doors, on a good plank floor, and accessible to very best sort raised in this country. The stack named must little air, while in stack.

JOHN F. HILLMAN.

RARE BIRDS.-The admirers of rare and beautiful birds, are referred to the advertisement of Mr. GILES of Wood stock, Ct., in another page of this paper.