When the plant has reached this state, dry seasons will rarely effect it. Its growth is so rapid that it will destroy all weeds, and leave the soil perfectly clean. As the seed is very apt to fall out, great care has to be taken in barvesting. As soon as the first pods turn brown, about the first of August, it has to be mown in the morning and at night, or after a rain. Leave it for 12 to 24 hours-rake it together; also, when the dew is on it, make into small cocks, and let it cure like hay. Before hauling turn the cocks gently. In hauling use a wagon with close botThe object is to stir it as little as possible. It is easy thrashed with flails, and easy cleaned. If Serradella is sown with grain, it will produce a ton or more of hay after the grain is cut. Serradella is not only the best feed for stock, but also the very plant to enrich poor tom. Agricultural Schools. Every farm and workshop ought to be a school where our sons and others can be taught to guide the plough and swing the scythe, and handle every tool in the most appropriate manner known to those skilled in their use. In the one, should be taught the nature of soils, the qualities and uses of manures, and all the minutiae of the cultivator's art; in the other, the laws which govern mechanics should be studied, and the pupil should be instructed in all the mysteries of the mechanic arts. Thus, in both should be taught all the various learning which goes to complete the farmers' and mechanics' education for the practical duties of their calling. But their education should not be on the farm or in the workshop alone. The district schools should not be neglected. These are pre-eminently the farmers' and mechanics' colleges. They ought to be improved, and made to become such schools as are now but too uncommon, where our youth may obtain not only a good business education, but one that will fit them for all of the duties which grow out of the relations they sustain to each other, their country, and their God.-W. B. Downer's Address. The Currant. Of all the small fruits that grow in the temperate latitudes, the currant is the most reliable and costs the least labor, and for this very reason it seems to be the least appreciated. The various forms in which the currant may be used, its agreeable flavor and healthful qualities, entitle it to higher consideration that it generally receives, and should induce its more universal cultivation. In the first place, being adapted to use when green, it is one of the earliest fruits available. By the time it is half grown, if stewed in a swimming supply of water and sweetened to the taste, its mild, fresh tart, forms a refreshing relish upon the breakfast or tea table, and is to the taste, what the first notes of the early spring birds are to the ear-a prophecy of good things to come. Strawberries are delicious, and red English raspberries are luscious, and the full ripe currants, served up raw, with sugar well moistened with water, stepping in just when these step out, are scarcely less grateful to the palate; and with a little care in leaving the later bunches, the luxury may be continued from foue to six weeks. And except in cases of organic disease of the stomach and bowels-when the seeds must be avoided-they are a most healthful fruit, the acid having the effect to counteract bilious and malarious tendencies, and the expressed juice, properly prepared, makes a harmless and refreshing beverage in most cases of sickness. There is said to be great difference in different kinds of currants, in respect to yield and quality. Undoubtedly there is some difference in varieties. The white and black currant does not seem to yield as well as the red, and some reds seem, at least, to produce better than others. But much of this difference in the red currant, we apprehend, is owing to cultivation. Ground cannot be too rich for the fruit, nor kept too clean. The mode of propagating is well understood by most people. A hill of old currant bushes taken up, may be divided into a half dozen to a dozen settings, which will produce fruit a year or two earlier than cuttings. But when these cannot be obtained, cuttings of last year's sprouts-which from old hills should be mostly remoyed-cut any time before the buds start, and set 'early in good mellow, rich ground, will take root. The lower end of the cutting should be cut square with a sharp knife. The top should be cut back to a good stray bud. Dig and set the shootnot force it into the ground. The latter process is liable to tear the bark from the end and prevent its taking root.- Wisconsin Farmer. Selecting and Keeping Seeds. The practice of selecting seed having in view the preservation and improvement of its quality, and that which tends to the same result, the in crease of the fructification by the process of steep ing, are both very commonly considered new ideas; and the latter especially so new as to have its value not yet determined. The selection of seeds was considered by Virgil as essential to prevent rapid degeneration, and their preparation for sowing by steeping was familiar: "I have seen, indeed, many sowers prepare their seeds artificially, steeping them first in saltpetre and the black lees of oil, that their produce may be larger in the deceptious pods. And though, to hasten their growth, they were steeped over a slow fire, after long selection, and proved by much care, yet I have seen them degenerate, unless human industry culled them out with the hand, the largest every year. Thus all things naturally hasten to decay, and gliding away are insensibly driven backward; not unlike him who, rowing his skiff with much ado against the current, by chance slackens his arms, when the tide hurries him headlong down the stream." Such is the testimony given near 2,000 years ago to the tendency to degeneracy of cultivated crops, and, strange to say, the lesson it teaches is not yet well learned. It is only what we call especially enlightened cultivators who see the necessity of such selection, and practice upon it. Some have practiced it with most valuable results, not in maintaining only the quality of seeds, but in originating valuable new varieties. There is indeed scarcely one of our ordinary crops which have not, within a few years, felt the effect of judicious selection. But few cultivators, comparatively, recognize the value of a due preparation of seeds by steeping in fertilizing substances. There seems to be on record hardly enough of reliable testimony to justify a dependence upon any particular mode or any particular substance, in thus fertilizing our seeds, but quite enough to call for and to justify the most painstaking experiments to determine how or with what the different seeds may be prepared to give them that impulse in their earliest growth which seems to influence all their after progress. We know how especially necessary to our great staple, wheat, is such an early impulse, that, under our practice of late fall sowing, it may be so rooted in the fall as to enable it in spring to bear its burden of seed. It may be doubted whether the marvellous effect of a mere dusting of Peruvian guano were not due rather to this effect upon its earliest growth than to any other influence. When the drill came into use, intelligent farmers testified that fifty tubes of the drill, were equivalent to two hunpounds put in contact with the seed, through the dred sown broadcast: and less than half this quantity was said to give an equal apparent im provement, in some cases, where the grain was brined first and dusted with as much guano as would adhere to it. Dr. David Stewart, well known as an agricultural chemist, and who has given a great deal of experimental investigation to questions of this sort, says, in an article published some years ago in the American Farmer: "Any soil properly constituted with regard to consistence, and in organic elements, will produce double the crop with good cultivation, if we insure a prompt and vigorous growth of the young plant." "The most important influence," he says, further, "exerted by concentrated manures, appears to be their tendency to develop more promptly and perfectly the germs of the cereals. How it is possible that the embryo should anticipate its future wants, and recognize the supply, we cannot divine; but it appears pretty well established that seeds may be dormant for years, until a certain excess of the elements necessary to their full development accumulates around them, and thus, or by peculiar cultivation, they obtain the ascendency over other plants. "Multiplied experiments have proved that a tithe of this quantity, placed near the seed, will produce the same effect, although two-thirds of the manure are composed of volatile elements which do not contain one-fifth of their weight of nitrogen; and what is still more remarkable, the nitrogenous or ammoniacal manures, not only add more than ten times their weight of nitrogen to the plants, but those grains that contain the most nitrogen are least benefitted by nitrogenous manures. Have we derived no hints on this subject from the poor Indian, who to this day presses out a few drops of blood from his slaughtered foe upon his hills of maize? Blood is a highly azotised substance, exceedingly liable to change, and during the state of activity or change it is apt to set up fermentation in grains of corn, and those metamorphoses which precede and accompany germination." A number of carefully made experiments are also found recòrded in the American Farmer, as made by Hon. T. G. Clemson, Commissioner of Agriculture under President Buchanan, on his place near Washington. "The practice of preparing seed," he remarks, is by no means new. The Egyptians and other nations practiced the art, and I have reason for believing that it made a necessary part of their system of husbandry. After multiplied observations and varied experiments, I have come to the conclusion that a proper preparation increases, vastly, production. I also believe that the same cause renders the plant less liable to the casualties of disease and the destructive action of insects, and in small grain, on which I have chiefly experimented, increases the quantity and quality of the grain, as well as adding greatly to the size, healthiness and amount of straw. "These observations have been repeatedly corroborated by those who have had occasion and have taken sufficient interest in the matter, to compare and examine into the subject. "As the experiments were instituted for my own personal satisfaction, I have not found it necessary to be exact as to measurement of ground and product, varied plantings, side by side, afforded the means of comparison for my purposes. At the instance of a friend, I carefully measured the ground planted last year in rye and wheat. No manure of any kind was used. "The ground seeded amounted to nine and a-half acres-seven and a-half in rye and two in wheat. The top of the hill, which I thought the poorest, was sowed with rye, the seed having been previously prepared; through the entire length and in the centre a strip of about two lands was sowed with the same seed in its normal state. The ground sowed with prepared seed measured three acres. There was a manifest difference in the size of the heads, straw and grain, between the prepared and unprepared.— The crop from the prepared seed was even, tall and heavy; the heads long and bending over. That from the unprepared was uneven, much of it small and not worth cutting. "The three acres from the prepared seed yielded thirty-six bushels. The six and a-half acres from unprepared seed yielded rye thirty-three, and wheat nine bushels-forty-two bushels." There seems to be no reason at all to doubt the accuracy and care and intelligence which attended these experiments, or the remarkable results. What we should learn from them, and from all that has been said upon the subject, from the antiquity of the practice of preparing seed, and the confidence with which it is spoken of as an old usage, and by those whose attention has been more recently directed to it, is that it is a matter well worthy of scientific investigation, and the most careful and varied experiment. And in our practice, in the meantime, no one for want of faith should fail to give his seeds of every description such fertilizing treatment as is here suggested. A soaking of twelve or eighteen "The State extends from latitude 32 deg. 20 min north, to latitude 42 deg. north, is 570 miles long, and has an average width of 230. It embraces 89,685,515 acres adapted to agricultural purposes, 29,000,000 acres swamp or tule land, thousands of acres of which are being reclaimed, and much of it producing unparalleled crops of vegetables, grass and fruits. The area of the valley is 30,000,000 acres, making, with the mountain land, a total of 70,000,000 acres suitable for agricultural and grazing purposes. Of this there is under fence over 6,000,000 acres, of which 178,960 acres, in 1860, produced 3,068,693 bushels of wheat; 154,690 acres produced 6,939,678 bushels of barley; 37,620 acres produced 1,563,459 bushels of oats. This year, as near as can be ascertained up to this date, four times the above amount of cereals have been raised. Fruit trees and grape vines, in 1860, numbered 6,000,000. These have quadrupled up to this time. Stock of all kinds in 1860 numbered 1,576,990. Horses 577,000, cattle 922,374, sheep 491,794, goats 12,743, swine 165,921, mules At the present 47,000, poultry over 80,000. time there are over 2,000,000 sheep, and in no part of the world do they do better or can be The French and Spanish raised at less cost. merinos, the Southdown, the Cotswold and other varieties have been imported from the Atlantic States, France, Spain and Australia, and prosper here as well as in their native countries. Wool is fast becoming an important article of export, over 7,000,000 pounds having been shipped last year." Certainly agriculture and manufactures should be made the leading interest of the State; the mines may run out, the soil never can. Scientific Farming. It is not our purpose, in these papers, to attempt to explain the mysteries of planting, or to advocate any particular theory of vegetable growth. We propose merely to state the facts that fall within the range of common observation, and to trace the connection of these with their obvious causes. The subject of ammonia, and its influence on the growth of plants, which we introduced in the last number, is, when properly understood, a key to unlock many mysteries that surround the observing farmer. Remembering that ammonia furnishes plants with all the nitrogen they contain, and that animal-every tissue of whose bodies (excepting the fat) contains nitrogen-derive it all, through the vegetable, from ammonia, and that these organized structures, both animal and vegetable, when they decay, return their nitrogen to the air, in combination with hydrogen, in the form of ammonia; and when we furthermore bear in mind the very light and volatile character of this gas, and its high solubility in cold water, and the readiness with which it is liberated again when the water is warmed but a little, we shall be able to solve many problems which have often presented themselves to the observing farmer. You have all observed how much more vigorously plants grow after a shower of rain, than after artificial watering, however well it may have been done. This is especially observable if the shower has been preceded by a drought of some weeks. You need have no difficulty in explaining this. From the decay of organic bodies the ammonia has accumulated in the air-the water, descending through the atmosphere, washes out the ammonia and carries it to the roots of the thirsty plants, which drink it up greedily, supplying at once two of the important elements of plant geowth-water and ammonia; while in artificial watering we supply only one of these. If, however, the soil is deficient in vegetable matter, the lack of carbon will soon be seen in the rapid loss of ammonia when the surface is exposed to a warm sunshine. Or if but a few inches of the surface soil has been pulverized, the heat of a summer's day will certainly drive back into the air all the ammonia that yesterday's shower brought down to the earth. Deep cultivation holds the ammonia at a depth below the heating influence of the sun's rays. This is by no means the least important advantage of deep tillage and thorough pulverization of the soil; nor is it only the ammonia and carbonic acid brought down by the showers that a soil properly tilled will appropriate. A porous, finely pulverized soil admits the air to circulate freely through it, and the fertilizing gases mixed with it are absorbed by the soil and retained for plant food. Another fact, which every observing farmer has noticed, may be noted in this connection. The good effect of a shower depends much on the time of its falling, and the subsequent condition of the air. If a shower falls early in the morning, and is immediately succeeded by a hot sunshine, farmers say that the crop gets but little good from it. But if the shower comes in the evening, then plants will be greatly benefitted by it. Now the reason of this is obvious. The ammonia brought down by the morning shower has hardly time to reach the roots of plants, before the heat of the sun sends it back again into the air; but the evening shower carries its fertilizing gases to the roots of plants, and they quietly feast on it all night long, and the remainder of the plant food thus furnished has, by the time the sun warms the earth on the following day, been carried downward, in the well pulverized soil, so far that it is but little effected by the sun's heat. The careful farmer who understands the science of his business, will not only prepare the soil so as to give it the highest capacity for absorbing ammonia and carbonic acid from the air, but he will furnish these indispensable articles of plant food for the use of his growing crops, from every available source. A very effectual method of doing this is the plowing in of green crops. Growing vegetables contain a larger proportion of the nitrogenized elements, than is found in them after they have fully matured and ripened. These, when plowed under in the green state, are rapidly converted into carbonic acid, water and ammonia, and these being disengaged under the earth, are absorbed by the soil, and held subject to the demands of the subsequent crop.The farmer, whose stubble field, last fall, was covered with a heavy crop of ragweed, which be suffered to ripen and stand exposed to the storms of the winter and spring, has but a faint idea of how much his corn crop of this summer will lose by his neglecting to turn his ragweed under while it was in bloom. Clover is the crop commonly used for turning under, and, if plowed in when in the vigor of its growth, is probably the best; but almost any thick coat of growing vegetation will serve a good purpose, if deeply turned under. There is an inconvenience, or perhaps two of them, attending the use of clover as a green dressing for fallows. If we turn under the first crop, it will require to be done about the middle of Junea time when the corn crop demands all the force usually available on the farm. If the second crop be used, it furnishes less green material than the first, and is dryer, harder, and decomposes more slowly, and furnishes proportionably less ammonia to the soil. If the farmer, however, manages to spare the labor from the corn field to plow in the June crop of clover, his naked field must be exposed to the direct rays of the sun, without any protection during the long, hot months of summer. The damage from this exposure will nearly offset the advantages of the green dressing. From this cause, a fall crop, if it be but weeds, should always be preferred for plowing in, whether the ground is to be sowed in wheat or planted in corn the next spring. In plowing in green crops, care should be taken to have the vegetable matter well covered. Indeed the crop should be turned under so deep that if the corn be raised on it the following year, the vegetable matter will not be disturbed by the cultivator.-R. T. Brown in Northwestern Farmer. Vineyard Management. The Missouri Democrat contains a report of the late annual meeting of the Missouri Horticultural Society. A large portion of the discussions was occupied with the grape and its culture, and among the letters read we extract the following from that of J. M. Jordan, of St. Louis, who planted a vineyard of five hundred Concord vines, in the spring of 1864. He remarks: "In the spring of 1866 I put up a trellis of oak stakes, 8 feet long, 1 feet in the ground; slanted the top to the north 3 feet; put in one stake to every two vines; put four lines of wire on the top side, lower line 2 feet from the bottom, the other 20 inches apart; fastened the wire to the stakes with a No. 8 wrought nail, driven into the stake and bent over the wire. From these 500 Concords I cut 11,000 pounds-an average of 22 pounds to the vine. This season, from one vine, I cut 96 bunches; they weighed 23 pounds; from another 65 bunches, weighing 30 pounds. I pinch the fruit bearing laterals as soon as I can after the third bunch of fruit has shown itself. My present opinion, subject to correction, by farther experience, is success with the Concord depends on good healthy vines, planted about 8 inches, in well plowed ground. Plow at least 12 inches, and the deeper the better. Clean culture, never growing any other crop in the vine. yard, not so much as a crop of weeds. Always grow enough good, well ripened wood for the next year's fruiting, and no more. Leave the laterals to grow on the new canes, about 1 foot long, and then pinch them, and on the fruitbearing vine pinch the lateral as soon as the third bunch of fruit has set and a leaf opened; then rub off the first bunch of fruit, and leave the second and third to mature; this work, I think, is the most important, (with the exception of gathering the fruit when it is ripe, and killing the birds that rob the vines) of any the vintner has to do, for a very few days neglect will often blast a large proportion of his crop. Prune with thumb and finger; never use a knife in summer pruning. We should direct the growth, not cut it away."-Country Gent. mate. Management of Grapevines. I would here remind those who are growing grapes, that this is the proper season to lay down long branches for producing future plants, as has been so often recommended in this paper. I raised a number of these last season, and was surprised at the vigor of the plants thus grown, and the close mat of fibrous roots. Without any desire to spoil trade, I must say that you seldom get such plants out of a nursery as you can raise yourself. Pin a long branch down into a shallow trench, and when all the buds have made a growth of several inches, gradually fill the trench up with earth, checking, by pinching, any disposition of some shoots to outgrow the others. I agree with B. F. J., in thinking that we imitate European practice too closely in cultivating the grape. Especially do we plant too near, and thin and prune altogether too much. We don't make allowance enough for the difference in cliHere we must have shade and a plenty of foliage to maintain a healthy equilibrium with the root; there it may not be of so much importance. I always leave three times as much wood as the books direct, and if the crop of fruit is too heavy, thin it out. Twenty years ago we could easily grow grapes by planting at the foot of large trees, and allowing the vines to run all over them. A friend grew great quantities of Catawbas and Isabellas in this way, and yearly got at least two barrels to the vine of what I then thought was the finest and choicest fruit I These vines are long since dead, winter-killed. Now we are obliged to cover our plants every winter with earth, even as far south as St. Louis, and are lucky if we get seven or eight pounds of fruit where we once got fully one hundred pounds with much greater ease. Even with these drawbacks, growing the grape is the most profitable branch of agriculture that we have, and for more than a hundred miles on the Mississippi river banks, it is the most certain crop that is raised.-B. T., Country Gent. ever saw. |