COL. DUANE'S SEEDING MACHINE. On the 10th June we attended a trial of Col. J. B. DUANE'S Seeding Machine, of which a very full description and several brief notices have heretofore appeared in our columns. We had never before personally witnessed its operation, however, in the field, although it was tested at the State Fair at Watertown, and has been doing considerable work during the past two seasons, we understand, for farmers about Schenectady. The trial was held upon the farm of Mr. COLLINS, on the Mohawk flats near that city. The soil there is of a kind to show the working of such a machine to good advantage, but its condition was unfavorable, having been plowed when not sufficiently dry, and baked in quite hard clods under the sunshine. Col. D.'s Seeder, as our readers may remember, combines in once passing over the surface of the ground every operation connected with the complete putting in of the seed. Teeth of a peculiar shape, devised to avoid clogging with anything over which they may pass, first cut up and cultivate the plowed ground, lying just as the plow left it; any desired grain then distributes itself over the surface just behind the cultivator teeth, and is covered by a drag following them; clover seed, or clover and timothy are next sown, and covered by a fine saw-tooth drag; the roller follows, and, last of all, plaster is distributed over the surface behind the roller, at any desired rate per acre. [See vol. XVIII Co. GENT., page 253, for cut and fuller description.] Thus the ground is passed over but once, in breadths of four feet, although it is designed to construct machines of six feet width; the whole work is completed as fast as it is begun-neither rain nor any other cause having an opportunity to intervene and leave the operation half done-the grain half dragged in, or the clover unsown, or the land unrolled, and consequently unfit for the reaper and the mower at subsequent harvests. The points which the actual trial of the machine, as compared with seeing it not in operation, brought most particularly to our notice, are these: 1. The success with which the inventor has harmonized and combined in small compass so many different actions, and the simplicity with which each by itself is accomplished. The weight of the whole apparatus is adjusted so as to balance itself upon the roller-just where it is wanted. The roller itself can be consequently constructed of as light material as is compatible with strength. Castor wheels in front, and the two sections in which the roller is made, enable the machine to turn with perfect ease in its own width, so as to begin the next breadth just at the edge The driver, seated behind, regulates everything, from the depth of the cultivator teeth in front, to the throwing of the whole out of gear, without leaving his place. of the last one. 2. The great ingenuity displayed in the several parts. The cultivator teeth in passing through the barn-yard to reach the field, cleared themselves of the loose straw as they went along. By changing them for those of another pattern, the land is thrown in narrow ridges and the seed therefore comes up in perfect drills. By reference to page 253 of our last volume, already alluded to, other ingenious devices will be observed, all of which performed very satisfactorily, the parts they were intended to fill. 3. The ease with which so much labor is done at once. The team employed was an excellent one for farm work of any kind, never lagging or hanging back in their work; but they were not heavy, and although it was a good pull for them, and the day oppressively warm, the task seemed quite as easy and much less noisy than the working of a Reaper. We tested the draught by an ordinary spring dynamometer, which varied in the oscillations of the index, with the movements of the team and casual obstruc tions, from two or three hundred pounds all the way up, but it lingered most and oftenest between 350 and 400 lbs., and the average could not have been far from 375 to 390. 4. The machine was tested first in sowing oats, and then with peas; the seed was perfectly covered in both cases, and the land left, as all who were present conceded, in fully as good, if not in better order, than if the several operations had been performed one by one in the usual method. The advantage here involved, is that by the use of such a machine, the farmer is sure of having his work well done throughout, whereas when each is done by itof the seed at all, are frequently slighted, if not wholly self, those which are not absolutely necessary to the growth omitted, in the hurry of the season, from stress of weather, or from that other cause which affects the performance of so many duties, away from the farm as well as on it-the spirit of idleness inseparable from "human depravity." farmer must sometimes wish to perform the separate On the other hand, we have the objection that every operations combined in the Duane Seeder, one by one, and that in making this expensive addition to his farm machinery, he does not altogether obviate the necessity of procuring the detached implements for other tasks. A story was also told on the field, of some early citizen of Schenectady, more fond of large and forcible expressions than he was capable of understanding the accurate definition of the long words he so constantly employed, and who complained when Dr. Norr first brought out his improved cooking stove, that "there was a plaguey sight too much metaphysics about it." But, as already stated, each part appear-is really simple in itself, and the danger of deof this machine-however "metaphysical" the whole may rangement arising from the number and complication of its parts, must be, in point of fact, less than we had feared. It is not a machine which a farmer would thoroughly comprehend until after some study and examination, unless possessed of more than the usual degree of mechanical aptitude, and, when thoroughly mastered, we fancy he would much rather work it himself than entrust it to most of the hired men he would be able to employ. But the same thing might be asserted with regard to the mower, and still more with regard to the reaper; and there is no doubt of the fact that our farmers are now much better twenty years ago. They have been educated up to the acquainted with mechanical principles than they were to their fathers quite as full of troublesome "metaphysics" daily use of much machinery which would have appeared as Dr. Norr's cooking stove did to those who had never before had anything but an open fire-place. Upon the same field in which the Seeding Machine was tried, there had been one strip of oats put in a week or ten days previously, which showed, from the manner in which they were appearing above the surface, how well In the next field we had and evenly the seed was sown. similar evidence in regard to clover seed. We then drove out, about three miles, to the farm of JACOB HOUCK, Esq., at Glenville, to inspect a field of oats ridged in, in very perfect drills, by the same machine with different cultivator-teeth attached as above noted. The appearance of the young grain was very fine and even, with the exception of one strip where its Imperfect growth had not been in any respect the fault of the machine. If space permitted we should add some remarks with respect to the farming in this part of the Mohawk valley. We have never seen a farm more perfectly neat or ap parently more thoroughly tilled, nor buildings more commodious and convenient for the purposes of such a farm, than we found at Mr. HoUCK's;-and this word of com. mendation although it may seem high, we shall hereafter hope to prove well deserved by a more complete description, if time permits our visiting Glenville again during the season. Among other farmers with whom we had some conversation, and whose systems of practice we shall some time hope to record, are Messrs. COLLINS, CHARLES SANDERS and ALBERT VAN VOAST. J. D. WATKINS, Esq. of Schenectady did much to forward the success of the trial. as we have heretofore stated after other visits, is upon clover and plaster, so that, in comparison with the benefit derived through the last mentioned agency, Mr. G. is al THE CULTIVATOR. most inclined to regard yard manure as something of a ALBANY, N. Y., JULY, 1862. In the midst of a refreshing and much needed rain on the 4th June, we set out for Central New-York, congratulating ourselves that the drouth was at last at an end. At Syracuse we learnt that during the whole month of May there had been but about an inch and a half of rain, in round numbers, two-thirds of which fell during the first two days of the month, leaving the whole of the remainder very unusually dry. There could not have been so much rain last week, we judge, in Central New-York, as there was in the eastern part of the State, and we regret ted to hear by friends from Buffalo and Rochester, that the showers there had been still lighter, scarcely wetting the surface of the ground. The prospects for Fruit about Syracuse appear to be uniformly good. In the fine young orchards of V. W. SMITH, Esq., the pear trees were as heavily burdened as they well could be, and as to plums he remarked that there would be plenty this season for human use even after the curculio has taken all it wants. As to the Farm crops, a drive with Mr. GEDDES showed that the winter wheat and grass have both been kept back for lack of moisture, while spring grain must also be somewhat behind. Mr. G. does not think the prospect for grain nearly so good as last year; it is well to add how good his own grain crops were in 1861, in order to understand the basis of this comparison: Upon 62 acres of winter wheat and 12 acres of spring wheat, harvested on the farm last autumn, the average yield throughout was twenty-eight bushels per acre. JOHN JOHNSTON had been at Mr. G.'s just before our visit, and thought the promise of the wheat now as good there as it is about Geneva. Mr. Geddes is constantly growing a smaller proportion of white wheat and a larger surface of Mediterranean. The latter has modified its character very much since it has been produced in his vicinity, and is now known as "Onondaga Amber." For domestic purposes it is preferred by Mr. G. to the white wheat, the bread made from it being moister, and quite as white as we ever desire to see it. In an address last year we referred to Mr. G.'s farm as furnishing an example with respect to the amount of manure made upon it,-stating that he keeps a flock of sheep of just about as many head as he has acres on his farm, and is "careful to turn all the straw he grows into manure." The latter part of this assertion is quite incorrect. Straw sells readily there, and a large amount is yearly disposed of; but, in point of fact, it would be almost impossible to tread down and apply all the straw produced in the form of stable manure. What Mr. Geddes did do last year has given him a larger amount of manure than we ever before saw on one farm in this country, from 13 to 16 piles, which have been put up during the spring in cleaning the yards, to await autumn application, mainly on the surface, and which have almost as neat and trim an appearance as so many stacks about an Eng. lish farmstead. About forty acres of grain straw, about thirty acres of clover straw thrashed for the seed, and the waste of twenty-six acres of corn and forty acres of hay, entered into their composition during the winter, so that they probably represent quite as large a quantity as if the straw of the whole wheat crop of 1861 had been reserved by itself for the purpose. The present year there are 106 acres in wheat, 18 each in corn and barley, and 8 in oatsa total of 150 acres, leaving somewhat more than one-half the farm in grass and clovers, permanent or otherwise. Notwithstanding the native fertility of the soil here, and the amount of yard manure made, the main dependance, drug, and is placed above the necessity of composting it with peat, &c., to increase its quantity, and of closely economizing all other manurial resources, as many less fortunately situated farmers are obliged to do. But his manure yards for careful management, quite as much as for the amount are tight, and their contents will not leach away; and that is made, a profitable lesson might be conveyed to any visitor at the farm in person, if not to any reader of these already too prolonged remarks. During the past two months Hon. A. B. CONGER of Haverstraw, has been making several important additions to his already extensive herds of Short Horns and Devons. Mr. J. R. PAGE of Sennett, completed a number of purchases of Short-Horns for Mr. CONGER in April last— 66 THORNE, and purchased of DANIEL MCMILLAN of Springamong them the "Duke of Thorndale," bred by SAM. field, Ohio; the imported cow "Violante," bred by Jas. the Society of Shakers at Lebanon, Ohio, together with DOUGLASS of Athelstaneford, Scotland, and imported by five others of less celebrity, also purchased from the Shakers; the imported cow Bright Eyes 3d," with her daughter, purchased of J. D. PATTERSON of Chautauqua Co., also "Artless 3d," a two-year old heifer sired by Lord "Vermillion of Oxford, from the same herd; the cows South Charleston, Ohio; "Grace" and her calf, from Jas. Queen Mary," purchased from WM. D. PIERCE of HALL of Paris, Ky.; "Coquette" and her calf, from Wм. R. DUNCAN of Winchester, Ky., and last, but not least, imported "Lydia Languish," by Duke of Gloster, "Pearlette," by Duke of Airdrie, "Jessica," by Albion, and "Winona," by Fantichini, all from R. A. ALEXANDER, Woodburn Farm, Woodford Co., Ky. and Besides the foregoing, Mr. PAGE passed through here last week with a second installment, among which, we are informed, were the bull "Old Warrior," bred by RICHARD BOOTH, imported by the Clinton County, Ohio, Association-purchased from WM. PALMER of that county; and several Short-Horn cows, including "Miss Belleville," imported by the late NOEL J. BECAR, purchased from E. MARKS of Camillus, Onondaga Co. There were also four Devon cows from the herd of AMBROSE STEVENS of Gene see county. We did not have the opportunity of seeing either of these transhipments, but from their pedigree, and the opinion expressed by Mr. PAGE, whose judgment in stock matters deservedly stands high, they cannot but prove a valuable accession to the breeding establishment at Waldberg." CROPS ABOUT PHILADELPHIA.-A ride through portions of Chester, Montgomery, Delaware, and Philadelphia counties, shows a fine promise of the wheat crop-the only drawback being the large portions beaten down by the late great storm. The Mediterranean is exclusively sown. Fields generally appear as well as in the best portions of Western New-York, but the growth is six inches to a foot taller, and the heads rather shorter. Farmers think that the product will average 18 or 20 bushels per acre; and the best cultivators expect 25 to 28. Thirty bushels is about the highest product. Corn looks well for the late season, and the grass crop will be about medium in amount. I have seen meadows of some of the best farmers that will certainly bring three tons. J. J. T. 11th. 6 mo., The pecuniary value of the money and medal prizes offered for competition at the great International Cattle Show to be held at Battersea Park, London, June 23-27, is a little short of $25,000. What can FARMERS' CLUBS do beyond holding cultural Journals. But its successor, the "Lower Canada Winter Meetings for mutual intercourse and discussion, Agriculturist," bids fair to equal if not exceed it, in this to promote the improvement and progress of Farming? direction. Several of the recent numbers have shown a This question is often asked. A great deal may be done marked degree of progress, and the one for June, contains through the summer months to keep up the interest and page after page filched from the columns of the COUNTRY increase the efficiency of Farmers' Clubs. The Lincoln-word of credit. Our exchanges on this side the lines, are GENTLEMAN and other American papers, without a single shire (England) Chronicle, an excellent paper which we receive with great regularity, affords an example in point, many of them careless and unfair enough in respect to through the medium of an advertisement of the "Lincoln credits, but the palm must be awarded we think to the official organ of the Agricultural Board of Lower Canada. Farmers' Club," which offers the following clipping prizes," as they are there termed, with an appointment of the farm on which the clipping is to take place, June 3d, when the following prizes will be given : To the man who shall shear 6 sheep in the best £. s. d. manner, time considered,. To the Second,. To the Fourth, 2.50 1.25 The conditions are that competitors should be nominated by members of the Club, and reside within 12 miles of the Guildhall at Lincoln. The Journal of the Illinois State Ag. Society for June, contains a Report on Agricultural Statistics submitted to the Madison County Society of that State, by a 200-say $10.00 1 0 0 5.00 Committee of which W. C. FLAGG, Esq., was Chairman. 0 10 0 05 0 As a home illustration of the subject, Mr. F. remarks that last autumn he arranged in a table the products of his orchard "for seven years. Now, in this case, the naked fact was that each year had furnished a given number of barrels of apples. A new fact, however, was that on alternate years the product was about one-half what it was in other years. Another new fact which appeared was that trees of early apples produced a smaller quantity of apples, but larger cash returns than winter fruit. These facts, thus arrived at in a satisfactory way, have an imme95,982 diate practical value to myself or any other person under 582,980 like circumstances." THE LIVE STOCK AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF THE SSATE OF INDIANA.-The census of 1860 gives the following returns as to the Agriculture of the State of Indiana: LIVE STOCK-NUMBER OF HEAD. 409,504 Milch Cows, ... 18,627 Working Oxen, 2,157,375 Other Cattle,. 2,498,528 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. 15.219,012 bushels. | Wool, 69,641,590 do. $50,116,964 491.033 2,466,264 pounds. The Report presents a detailed summary of the information given on the subject through the COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, and submits a full and well considered plan for Irish Potatoes, 3,873, 134 bushels. adoption by the Society, to procure returns of the Agricultural Statistics of the County of Madison. We need scarcely add that we are glad to see the good seed that was sown with a primary reference mainly to our own State, already springing up and bringing forth fruit away out in Southern Illinois. Sweet Potatoes 284.300 do. 17.934,764 pounds. 569,577 do. 635,324 tons. We have received the Prospectus of a company entitled the New-York and Nicaragua Colonization Association." It appears from it that offers have been made THOMAS' FRUIT CULTURIST.-A Michigan Subscriber of "large grants of land in more than one of the Central writes us under date of May 21, 1862: "I have been alAmerican States, on terms but little above the cost of most a constant subscriber for your paper for some fifteen record and survey, and on the sole other condition of im-years, have acted as agent part of the time, and have mediate colonization and rapid settlement of the country." been very much pleased and entertained with it. My It is proposed to found a practical working colony, for which that part of Nicaragua near or about the head of Nicaragua Lake has been chosen as the most advantageous site. The climate and healthfulness of the country, the fertility of the soil, the character of the natives, are all most highly spoken of. The letters published in this Journal from our Minister to Nicaragua, Hon. A. B. DICKINSON, (one of which may be found on another page of this paper,) afford farther information on these topics. "For the purpose of organizing this emigration, establishing manufactories, opening up the mines and developing the agriculture of the region selected, this association has been formed, and a charter under the laws of the State of New-York has been taken out with a capital of $50,000, divided into 2,000 shares of $25 each. Each share will be entitled to a grant of 25 acres of land, which the shareholder may own in his own exclusive right; and, besides that, he will be entitled to his pro rata interest in the enterprise and profits of the corporation." The President of the Association is Dr. E. S. TYLER, who is said to have been an extensive traveller in Central America. The Secretary, who may be addressed for farther information, is Mr. T. C. LELAND, 614 Broadway, New-York. copy of Thomas' Fruit Culturist has been very much used here, and is pronounced the best work on fruit to be had. It has done a great deal of good, giving such full and complete descriptions. My copy was published, however, in 1850, and I wish another of a later edition. C. F. M." Since the date mentioned by our correspondent, an edition has been published considerably enlarged, and with farther information as regards varieties of Fruit of more recent introduction. We can send him a copy, postpaid, for $1. The price at which it is generally catalogued is $1.25. EXTRAORDINARY ASPARAGUS--We received last week two bunches of Asparagus-25 stalks in each--weighing each about 34 pounds, accompanied by the following note: Oyster Bay Cove, May 19. GENTLEMEN :-I send you to-day by express, two bunches of Asparagus, to show you what we can do in raising that vegetable on Long Island. What I send you is from a bed two and three years old. As I thought you would like to see some that we call fine, (though I have seen larger,) I took the liberty of sending it, hoping you will receive it in good order. THOMAS YOUNGS. We cannot say more than to add, with our thanks, that this specimen of Asparagus was very greatly admired by all who saw it, and still more by those who ate it. It reached us in perfect order. The periodical formerly published at MontrealIt is said in the newspapers that "Belle of Brunsthe "Farmer's Journal," we believe it was called-sur-wick," a 2:40, 1,000 pound, 15 hand, õ year old grade passed anything else in our experience, in the unblushing Morgan mare, has just been shipped from Maine to Liverappropriation of articles from the columns of other Agri- pool, for Mr. John De Costa, who pays $800. Juquiries and Answers. TOMATOES.-Can you give me a plan for raising the earliest tomatoes? M. A. J. [For ordinary out-door management, start the plants in a hot-bed, hot-house or warm apartment of a dwelling well lighted, as follows: Make boxes of rough half-inch boards five or six inches square, and three or four deep; leave the bottoms without nailing in, but wedged so as not to drop out. Fill these with rich earth, plant the tomato seed, and give warmth and light. This may be done several weeks before it would be safe to set them out. When there is no farther danger of frost, set them in open ground, by pushing out the bottom. The soil should not be extremely rich, or the stems will grow too luxuriantly at the expense of the fruit. When the stems have grown two feet or as soon as the fruit begins to set, pinch off the tops, to induce the Trellis for Tomato Vines. formation of flowers and fruit. If a suitable house is provided for them, they may be planted as early as February, and then changed once or more to larger pots or boxes, as they increase in size. They should be supported by a small trellis, as shown in the accompanying figure.] A TROUBLESOME WEED-This Scour grass is making great headway against me. Can you or any of your readers tell me how to exterminate it? It has taken possession of meadow and every place where the hoe does not come. I do not know the proper name of it, and inclose a small piece that you may call it by its right name. J. B. S. [We do not know the true name of the weed enclosed, but will endeavor to ascertain it. We believe it to frequent wet land particularly, and that the only remedy is to plow up, drain and re-seed the meadows; but perhaps our correspondents can give better advice.] IMPURE CHARCOAL FOR MANURE.-Is charcoal which has been used for rectifying liquors, valuable as a manure? If so, what is the best mode of applying it, and to what crops should it be applied? M. A. J. [The great value of charcoal consists in its power to absorb fertilizing material for plants; we do not think the matter which saturates it in this instance is of much value, but prevents it from receiving anything else better. It does not seem probable therefore that such charcoal can be of much utility.] RANCID BUTTER-Can you inform me, through the Co. GENT, if there is any way to improve rancid butter? I have looked through two volumes, but cannot find the information required. w. c. [We have seen it stated that rancid butter may be rendered sweet and good, by churning it in new milk. Try it and give us the result.] A "QUARTER" OF WHEAT.-Will you oblige me by mentioning exactly what the English "quarter" of wheat is, to which I see so frequent reference in the columns of the Co. GENT. A. P. [A quarter of wheat contains eight imperial bushels, and an imperial bushel contains 2,218.192 cubic inches, while our American measure is the old Winchester bushel, containing 2,150.42 cubic inches-so that the English measure is 67.77 cubic inches larger than ours. This difference in measure must be always calculated in comparing prices; 33 Winchester bushels, in point of fact, are very nearly equal to 32 imperial bushels.] LAYERING GRAPEVINES.-When and how must I layer grapevines, to get them to take root, that I may detach them from the parent root to transplant? I have a few Isabellas and Concords which I wish to multiply. A little information on the subject, will be gratefully received. J. M. SHAFER. Kalamazoo Co., Mich. [Nothing is easier than to propagate grapes by layers. Early in summer, say during the middle or latter part of June, bend down the fresh shoots, and cover them in the middle with three or four inches of earth. To facilitate the operation, a cavity should be made in the surface of the soil for admitting them. If the ground is quite dry, bury them deeper. They will send out roots at every joint thus covered, and they may be taken up late in antumn or the following spring, cut off from the main vine, and each rooted layer cut into two parts at the middle, thus forming rooted vines. Set them out and let them grow another season, and they will make good strong vines. In setting out, do not allow much of the vine to remain above ground.] RANCID BUTTER.-From much experience at sea I am enabled to give your inquirers about rancid butter (in the Co. GENT.) some practical hints. After repeated trials I have found the following the best method of restoring bad butter, if not too far gone : Place the butter in shallow wooden tubs, spread no thicker than two or three inches deep; with a knifo or spoon, channel it thickly "criss-cross" down to the bottom of the layer. Over this pour strong brine, (I have used the brine from pork barrels,) covering the butter to the depth of an inch or more. One night's treatment is generally sufficient to "cure" pretty strong and obstinate butter. Should the "curing" be efficient, the butter may be salty. A washing will clean it, but the rancidity will return immediately if all the salt is washed out. DR. E. F. DRAYTON. New-York. BUTTER-MAKING.-At this season of the year many farmers who do not follow butter-making as a business, have more than they need for home consumption, and would like to put it away for winter use, among whom is the writer. Will some of your correspondents furnish the process (in the great butter district of Orange county.) from the milking of the cow to the closing up of the firkin? Will butter taste of the wood if put into freshly made oaken casks? J. R. W. Havre de Grace. Md. CRIBBING-I would inform "A READER" of the COUNTRY GENTLEMAN who "has a young and valuable horse which has taken to cribbing," that I was once similarly situated with him. I had a young and valuable horse which had this very unpleasant habit, and so far as I have been able to learn, it is considered a habit, not a disease, and I never yet saw or heard of a horse that had this habit that was cured of it, neither have I ever known a satisfactory cause assigned for the habit. I had a remedy which I applied to my horse to prevent his cribbing, which would prevent it as long as it was applied, but whenever it was removed the horse would resume the practice again. The remedy was to take a narrow strap and buckle it round the horse's neck or throat close to the head, the strap to be drawn tight enough to fit close to the neck, but not so tight as to interfere with his breathing or eating. I never saw my horse attempt to crib more than a few times after the strap was put on his neck, as long as it remained there; but whenever it was taken off he would commence again, thus showing that the inclination or desire for the habit was not affected by the application. Wilmington, Vt., June, 1862. C. T. ALVORD. PEPPERMINT.-Can any of your readers give me the address of some person engaged in raising peppermint and manufacturing the oil--how to grow the plant, and how many WIDE AWAKE. pounds of oil per acre it will yield? DOMESTIC WINES.-Will some of your correspondents please give a few good recipes for making cherry wine? The cherries are the common ungrafted fruit. Also how to make wine out of blackberries and raspberries? If they are mixed, will the wine keep as well as if they were not mixed? Middlesex Co., N. J. D. C. DEATH OF LAMBS.-I want some information regarding the loss of lambs from a flock of six Leicester ewes, 4 years old, having raised only one from 9 dropped this spring, and but little better luck for the last two years before this. They have the range of 60 or 70 acres with cattle, and come to barn in autumn, in good, first rate condition. They are wintered solely on hay-no grain. Do they fall away during winter, and require graining? Have never grained them, fearing they would become too fat for breeding. What would be the effect, if fed a small quantity of roots and grain daily through the winter or till lambing comes on? C. P. BATES. Richfield, N. Y. ANSWER to G. M., Conn., who wishes to know the best and easiest way to furnish water for his ducks, as there is no water in his yard. Set an old tin pan in some convenient place, and keep it full of fresh water, or a better way would be to dig out a good sized trough, and sink it in the ground to within an inch or two of the top of the trough. Then with an adjustable conductor extending from the pump to he trough, his ducks might be supplied with water at a AVIS. J. P. BELL. Description of an Artificial Fish Pond. STEHEN H. AINSWORTH of West Bloomfield, in this State, who is well known as a successful fruit-grower, is also, it would seem, devoting his attention with equal success, to the breeding of fish. The editor of the Rochester Democrat, who visited Mr. Ainsworth recently, gives the following account of his operations: The pond covers something over sixty rods of ground, and is filled by conducting the water, from thirteen different springs, in tile laid under ground, and brought into pools a short distance above the pond. From thence it flows over a prepared bed of gravel to the pond. PerWHAT WILL DESTROY HEN-LICE?-In the spring my hen-haps one man in a million might have thought that a house is so full of lice that I am obliged to shut it up, and to fish-pond, and above all a place for speckled trout, keep my fowls out of it until some time in the fall. In the could have been made in the spot where this is located. spring of 1861, I set a hen in it, and after she had set about The water is fourteen feet deep in the main pond, and a week she was so covered with lice that she could not keep her nest; and we lost the eggs, or rather the chickens, which this depth has been secured by excavation-the original we expected from them. The hen we greased with fresh depression being very slight, although the spot was lard, but it would take too much lard to grease the whole of swampy and of little value. As a means of saving evthe hen-house. What else is there? A READER. ery drop of the small supply of water, two parallel walls WIND MILL.-Will you or some of your correspondents have been built around the pond, sunk into the blue clay, inform me through the Co. GENT., who had the wind mill at and the space between them grouted, so that not a drop the State Fair last fall? R. B. U. Clinton Corner. [We is wasted except by solar evaporation. At the bottom, observe that a prize was awarded to Merrill & Wood, Norwich, large stones are placed in positions to afford hiding N. Y., on "best arrangement for raising water other than places for the trout whenever they choose to retire from pump," but we have quite forgotten what sort of " arrange- the hot sun. In this respect Mr. Ainsworth has studied ment" it was.] the habits of his finny stock, and as far as he could, FRUITS INTERMIXING.-A subscriber in Kansas sends quite compensated them for removing them from their native a long string of queries, over the signature of NOVICE, seve-streams in Victor, Springwater, and other places, where ral of which are necessarily deferred for the present. He writes: "Will fruits of any kind, especially grapes and strawberries, be changed in character or kind by planting various kinds in close proximity to each other?" [The only effect of proximity is upon the seed or rather upon the product of the seed when sown. Two varieties of grapes or of strawberries planted so closely together as to intermingle their leaves and fruit, will always remain just as distinet "in character and kind" as they ever were; but the seeds Inside of the parallel walls there is a slope wall, and of either variety if planted will be likely to produce seed- from the top the ground recedes in all directions so lings partaking of the joint nature of both the parent sorts.] that no surface water is washed into the pond. In placBOOK ON FLOWER GARDENING.-What book do you recom-es where it is likely to stand too long it is carried off mend for information on the garden cultivation of flowers? R. S. Madison Co. [Breck's Flower Garden, which can be sent post-paid from this office for 31, will probably suit your wants more nearly than any other work.] ALBANY COUNTY AG. SOCIETY At a special meeting of the "Town Union Agricultural Association," held at the village of Clarksville on the 7th June, for the purpose of re-organizing, the following steps were taken: The title of the Society was changed to the "Albany County Agricultural Society," and a Constitution adopted to comply with the act entitled, "an Act to facilitate the forming of an Agricultural and Horticultural Society," passed April 13, 1855. The following named are the officers for the first year: they were captured. The walls around the pond are carried to the height it is intended the water shall reach, and then a sufficient quantity of earth placed over them to sustain shade trees, a large number of which are in a thrifty condition. The water comes into and passes from the pond through fine sieves, through which nothing but the water can pass. by tiling. Altogether, it is a perfect gem. Nothing has been neglected, and those who have the facilities, the good taste and enterprise to follow Mr. Ainsworth's example would be greatly aided by paying him a visit. He will, we run no risk in assuming, take great pleasure in giving them the benefit of his experience. It is, so far as we are advised, an unsettled matter how many fish can live in a given quantity of water. Mr. Ainsworth has placed nearly eleven hundred trout in his pond, and some additions have been made by the process of artificial fecundation; and this process he will continue to follow until his pond is sufficiently stocked. The spawn last year placed in the pools prepared for the purpose was mostly covered with sand or washed into still water, so that from thirty thousand eggs only about one hundred young fish-now an inch long-have been discovered. He will no doubt be more successful with future experiments. We have an imPresident JURIAN WINNE, Bethlehem. pression that the most successful experiments have been 1st Vice Prest.-JAMES W. JOLLY, Coeymans. made by using a succession of boxes, through which Vice Presidents-Luther Tucker, Martin Hallenbeck, the sand and earth is not washed. If it were possible the water runs over gravelly bottoms, and into which Geo. Young and Jacob Simmons, Albany; James Reamer to protect all the spawn deposited by the small numand Ira Boyington, Bern; John H. Booth and David Van ber of trout now left in our streams, we should quickly Allen, Bethlehem; Wm. Tuttle and John Burhans, Coey-see them re-stocked to their full capacity. But it is mans; Peter Shaver and Abm. V. Mynders, Guilderland; known that even under the most favorable circumstanStephen Mercelus and Elon Gallup, Knox; Robert Taylor ces only a few of the eggs hatch, and of those which do and Geo. W. Bender, New Scotland; Judson Conklin and James E. Mackey, Rensselaerville; Dr. P. B. Noxon and C. P. Williams, Watervliet; Chas. Bently and Jacob Dorman, Westerlo. Secretary-Samuel C. Bradt, Albany. much of the product is devoured by snakes, water foul, and the larger fish. It would be a very easy matter to resort to artificial fecundation, by which an immense quantity of the most beautiful and delicate fish known in American waters could be raised. Treasurer-William H. Slingerland, Bethlehem. But to the sport. Both bait and fly were taken the Directors-L. G. Ten Eyck and John Sloan, Bethle- instant they touched the water, and had a hundred hem; O. H. Osborn, Watervliet; Alex. E. Willis, Coey-hooks been upon each line, each one would have its mans; Henry Creble and David Callanan, New Scotland. victim. They were of various sizes when put into the |
