interest, and affording, at the same time, great pleasure to all who are favored with the privilege of perusing its pages. You will please accept my best wishes for a more extensive circulation of your paper, and believe me to be Very respet❜ly your ob't serv't, J. S. L. P. S. Should you think fit to continue sending me a copy, I will, if life lasts and nothing prevents, remit you the amount of subscription after awhile.* Truly, &c., J. S. L. In every such case we will take pleasure in continuing the Farmer. W. & L. AMHERST COURT HOUSE, VA. June 19th, 1867. The Agricultural College. We take pleasure in being able to say, that at a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the College, held on the 6th of June, it appeared from the report of the Registrar, that every dollar of the indebtedness of the Institution was provided for, and, notwithstanding that a corps of Professors larger and better paid than ever before was engaged, the Board found itself able to begin at once a plan of improvement at the College consistent with the designs of the Institution. and capable, when completed, of answering all its needful purposes. These improvements are already begun, and consist first, of all necessary repairs of the College Building, with such changes as experience has suggested, especially for thoroughly warming it; and all necessary refur The Farm improvements, the necessary buildings, the addition of suitable stock, and a system of cultivation, land improvement, planting, &c., are already in operation to an extent that will mark the present season as the beginning of a new career. We do not mean to say that every thing is to be done at once that may be desired, for that, present means do not allow; but that a judicious plan of operations is to be executed with energy, and to the full extent of the financial ability of the Board. Such a plan well begun now, will answer present purposes, and its prosecution, through several years to come, will be matter of interest and instruction to agricultural students. Editors American Farmer : With many kind wishes for your future suc- Kinds of Grass and Quantity of Seeds per acre. -A. E. W., Wilmington, N. C., will find his inquiries as to quantity of seeds per acre, answered on another page. The best and only grass seeds that it is worth while to sow on "wet lands" is "Red Top," called here commonly Herds' Grass. Timothy and Orchard grass are the best for hay on dry land. All may be sown at the time of wheat seeding in the fall, but in this latitude Orchard grass is usually sown in spring, with clover seed. Clover is especially valuable for pasturage and land improvement. Orchard grass and clover may be cut twice on very rich land, but it is better to give the land the benefit of the after growth, moderately grazed. It should be understood, as the published circular indicates, that this Institution is to be what its name implies, a Maryland College. Its standard of instruction is to be not below that of other colleges in or out of Maryland. A Preparatory School is not embraced in its scheme, and no student admitted under fourteen years of ago, unless fully prepared for the Freshman Class. If it may be deemed expedient in the beginning to allow the College Faculty to prepare for the Freshman Class such as are not fully up to its requirements, these cases would be exceptional. There are two distinct Courses of Instruction. The Academic Course, which is that of other colleges, embracing the Ancient Classics, Modern Languages, Mathematics, &c. And, The Agricultural Course, which embraces "thorough instruction in the Schools of English, Mathematics, Agriculture, with the Sciences applicable to it, and one or more modern languages." These courses will run parallel, and as far as practicable be combined, but any student make take either. The President elect, Charles L. C. Minor, Esq., of Hanover Co., Va., visited the College in the past month, and co-operated with the Resident Faculty in the preparation of the Course of Study, and on the invitation of the President of the Board of Trustees, attended its meeting on the 6th of June. He will enter upon the duties of his responsible position in September, having the fullest confidence of the Board and his associates of the Faculty, and their heartiest support. We shall scrupulously abstain from one word that may look like puffing the College into favour, but we will bespeak for it, from the community, a generous confidence, which we believe its future will justify. We ask especially that Marylanders will give it the support due to a peculiarly Maryland Institution, and help those engaged in the good work, to build up a seat of sound learning within her borders, which, as such, will do honor to the State, while it shall foster and elevate the pursuit which was first in the thoughts of its founders, We are not working for the present, only, but for a long future; not for ourselves and our sons only, but for their sons, and the generations to come of Marylanders. Utility of Moles. An interesting experiment, which shows the service rendered to agriculturists by moles, and the impolicy of destroying these little quadrupeds, has been made. In a commune of the canton of Zurich, the municipal council were lately about to proceed to the selection of a molecatcher, when M. Weber, a distinguished naturalist, laid before the board the following facts: M. Weber had carefully examined the stomachs of fifteen moles, caught in different localities, but failed to discover therein the slightest vestige of plants or roots; whereas they were filled by the remains of ascaris or earth-worms. Ville's Chemical Manures. M. Ville, who has been largely encouraged in his researches in vegetation by the Emperor of France, has classified manures under four general heads. He represents these by 1, nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia; 2, quicklime; 3, superphosphate of lime, and 4, carbonate of potash. When he has an untried soil before him, he divides it into four parts, to each of which he adds one of these substances. The result of the crop shows him wherein his soil is deficient, and how to rectify that deficiency. His complete, universal manure is a mixture of these substances. Recently some experiments have been tried on this principle, and the results are quite striking. M. A. Cavalier divided a hectare (2.471 acres) into six parts, and manured them as follows: M. Weber, not satisfied by this fact, shut up several moles in a box containing soda of earth, on which fresh grass was growing, and a smaller case of grub and earth-worms. two moles devoured three hundred and forty-one white worms, one hundred and ninety three ! earth-worms, twenty-five catterpillars, and mouse, skin and bones, which had been enclosed while alive in the box. In nine days First plot.... a M. Weber next gave them raw meat, cut up in small pieces, mixed with vegetables; the moles eat the meats and left the plants. He next gave them nothing but vegetables; in twenty-four hours two moles died of starvation. Another naturalist calculated that two moles destroy twenty thousand white worms in a single year. Evidently farmers ought to endeavor to multiply moles rather than kill them. Second plot........... .59.640 tons. .......... 45.325 tons. M. Leroy, at Varesne, (Oise,) got the following results: Complete manure.. Tons per hectare. 62.37 ..............42.39 without phosphate...............48.33 potash 66 ammonia................28.35 With Phosphate of Lime alone.....................18.90 With lime alone........ land, of New York, has sold two Alderney cows During the last two months, R. L. Maitat $500 each; five at $300; one at $250; and three at $200 each. Book Table. The "Moral Bearings" of Tobacco Culture. The American Agriculturist suggests to its readers, that over-production of Tobacco during the war having led to unprofitable prices, "it is a good time for the growers to pause and consider the moral bearings of the crop, and its infence upon other products of the farm." THE SMALL FRUIT CULTURIST, by Andrew S. Fuller. Practical Horticulturist, Bridgewood, N. J., beautifully illustrated. Published by Orange Judd & Co.. New York. This little work will give valuable assistance to the multitude now engaging in small fruit culture. The author is an intelligent cultivator of much experience, and his book may be relied on as a guide. He treats of the Barberry, Strawberry, Raspberry, Black-would find it politic to present any given subject, berry, Dwarf Cherry, Currant, Gooseberry, Cornelian Cherry, Cranberry, Huckleberry, Sheperdia, and Preparation for Gathering Fruit. If the Prince of Darkness should take occasion to address himself personally to bringing Americans to his way of thinking, we are very sure he in the beginning, in its "moral bearings." That much our good opinion of ourselves demands, and such concession to our virtue being made, we take what follows easy enough. We confess to a growing repugnance to this mode of treatment prima facie, and our observation has long ago satisfied us, that preachers should do all the preaching, and stick to it, and other people should study to do their own business in quiet AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON AMERICAN GRAPE CULTURE AND WINE MAKING, by Peter B. Mead. Illustrated with nearly 200 engravings drawn from Nature. Harper & Bros., N. York. The author professes that "indulging in no theorizing speculations, and introducing nothing of doubt-ness, and rely upon a wholesome example to do ful verification" he has treated "of all the facts and principles involved in the subject, laying them clearly in order before the student, and linking them together with just so much of the theory as is necessary to explain lucidly their relation to each other." the share set them in evangelising the world. We eschew, therefore, these "moral bearings," and do not propose to reply to our contemporary on that score. But the influence of Tobacco growing "upon other products of the farm," and upon the con The work is handsomely bound and printed, dition of the farm, is another matter. Let us as its intrinsic worth merits. THE MARYLAND EDUCATIONAL JOURNAL-pledged to no party or system-a School and Family Monthly, devoted to popular Instruction and Literature,-printed and published in Baltimore by E. S. Zevely, at $1.50 a year; aided editorially by a committee of prominent educators. Specimen copies 15 cents. No. 114 West Balti more street-business and editorial office at Cum berland, Md., where all letters, exchanges, &c., should be addressed. Number of P. O. box, Baltimore, 1072-Cumberland, 214. It gives us pleasure to notice the appearance of such a Journal in Maryland, and hope it will receive such support as will insure its success. Its appearance and contents indicate the determination of those engaged in it to make it worthy of the all-important work of public education. THE FARMER'S HOME JOURNAL is a handsome, and ably edited weekly, published at Lexington, Ky., by Miller & Marrs. $3 per annum. The first number was issued 1st of May. The Rural World says that until the 4th of May there was no rain in the vicinity of St. Louis during the entire spring. give the argument of the Agriculturist on these points at large, and condemn his reasoning out of his own mouth. It is just the sort of remark we have all our life heard from careless observers, or shallow thinkers, about the destruction done by Tobacco to Maryland and Virginia lands. He says: "The current of opinion as elicited at the last meeting of the Ct. Board of Ag., at New Haven, was decidedly against the crop, on economical grounds. It is not denied that a large sum of money may be realized by it, from a smal plot of ground. But the general confession is, that it ruins all the rest of the farm, by leading the cultivator to neglect it. It demands large quantities of manure, and all he can make goes to the Tobacco patch, and he buys a good deal besides. The meadows run out, the pastures become barren, the orchard fruitless, and if the cultivator accumulates funds in the bank, as he may, it is by the ruin of his farm. Ten acres may be splendid, but the other hundred have gone to mulleins and burdock. "The influence of this crop upon the community is quite as disastrous as it is upon the farm. The tobacco growing district grows poorer. Other farm crops decrease in quality and quantity.Less stock is raised, less beef, pork, butter, and other necessaries of life. The lands are all the while decreasing in agricultural value, and in its capacity of sustaining a thrifty population. If a man makes money by the crop, sells out and goes to the city, the community loses by the depreciation the farm has undergone. The value of its taxable property is all the while diminishing, we apprehend, under the influence of this crop. Other crops, as a rule, bless the farm, and tend to make it more productive. They help to sustain animal life, and if consumed upon the soil, return more to it than was taken from it. But Tobacco is a blight upon the land that raises it." "It is not to be denied that a large sum of money may be realized by it, from a small plot of ground." This, it is admitted then, is a good thing of itself. "But-it ruins all the rest of the farm." How? "By leading the cultivator to neglect it." Now this only proves that the cultivator is a very foolish fellow; for if he realises "a large sum from a small plot of ground," the Tobacco manifestly enables him to spend more manure and more labour on the remainder. "It demands large quantities of manure." What of that, if it pays, too, for large quantities. "If the cultivator accumulates funds in the bank, as he may, it is by the ruin of his farm." Now the Tobacco indeed furnishes the money for accumulation, but is it answerable for such accumulation, to the "ruin of the farm." It seems to us, it is only the same old folly that is too common the world over; men prefer investing in banks, when they should invest in improvement of their lands. "Ten acres may be splendid, but the other hundred have gone to mulleins and burdock." The ten acres are "splendid" for no possible reason but the growing upon them of a very profitable crop, and others gone to ruin, only because this same profitable crop was not raised on them. Is this an argument against tobacco growing? The argument of the Agriculturist would lie just as forcibly against any crop that gives large products per acre, to large quantities of manure and skilful cultivation. In any such case, supposing ten acres to be the limit of the crop, that extent of surface would be heavily manured and a large amount of labour bestowed upon it, and it would become, in consequence, "splendid." It would be also very profitable and furnish the means to make "splendid" other "ten acres." Whether the cultivator might choose to do so, or prefer putting out his money in banks or otherwise, has surely nothing to do with the matter. He is furnished with the strongest possible practical argument for investing it in manures, and crops by which "a large sum of money may be realised from a small plot of ground." Then it is asserted, that "the influence of this crop upon the community is quite as disastrous as it is upon the farm. The tobacco growing district grows poorer," &c. "Other farm crops decrease in quantity and quality." "The lands are decreasing in agricultural value," &c., &c. All these are assertions. If they are facts, what do they prove still but that tobacco growers are far less wise in all other matters than they are in growing a very profitable crop of Tobacco. But the truth is, that all this talk is but a sly little sermon, by our virtuous contemporary, to discourage the growing of Tobacco; the growers being considered accessories before the fact, to the wickedness of using it. He starts out on "the moral bearings," but does not venture a "moral" word more, until he has proved, as he would have us think, that tobacco growing don't pay. And as if not quite confident of the force of his reasoning, he tries to move us further, at the close, by a hint of "blessing" and the contrary. "Other crops, as a rule, bless the farm." "But Tobacco is a blight upon the land that raises it." We have been familiar all our lives with the same manner of argument about Tobacco growing in our own latitude, and have known always that it was very absurd. No crop is so well cultivated, none makes a finer preparation for grass seeds and clover, which should always follow, and none is less directly exhausting, or tends more to the general improvement of the farm, if the cultivator is wise enough to use properly the means it puts at his command. If any one would make the trial, let him take two lots of ten acres each, and put them through a course of cropping under the same conditions of fertility and manuring, except that Tobacco is grown upon one lot and corn on the other, selling the Tobacco and small grain in one case, and the corn and small grain in the other. The result in dollars and cents, and in the condition of the land at the close, would determine the matter. If the money made from the Tobacco were spent some where else, and that from the corn on the land, there would be no proper comparison of their effects. We do not advise beginners to enter on the cultivation of Tobacco, because it is a crop that demands skill and care, and, to engage in it to any extent, labour at command. But the circumstances of a great many persons make it profitable to them to bring their cultivation within a smaller area, and to grow such crops as may be largely increased, perhaps doubled, by an increase of manures alone; and Tobacco is one such crop. These need not, we think, be deterred by the "moral bearings" of our contemporary, which seems to be, after all, largely involved in the matter of dollars and cents, unless he can support them by a better show of reasoning. Catalogue. We are indebted to Franklin Davis & Co., of the Richmond nurseries, for a copy of their catalogue, from the preface to which we make the following extract: "A change has taken place in the labor system of the Southern States, and with it comes a change in the pursuits of many of her people. Many are looking and are undecided as to what they shall undertake. We believe that fruit growing offers greater inducements than anything else. Under this conviction we have gone largely into the business ourselves, and say to others 'go and do likewise;' and if you give it proper attention we will guarantee satisfactory returns. "Almost fabulous prices are realized by fruit growers in Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey, yet we think a much better chance is offered to the people of Virginia. Take James River-say from City Point to Fortress Monroe-strawberries, peaches, apples, pears, &c., ripen there from three to four weeks earlier than they do in the vicinity of New York and the most of New Jersey. These fruits can be shipped to New York and other Northern cities weeks in advance of any competition from their respective localities, which gives the Virginia fruit growers the exclusive control of the best market during the best part of the season. To give an instance of what can be done in small fruits: William Parry, of Cinnaminson, New Jersey, sold, in 1864, from 22 acres of land, $8,896 worth of strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. In 1865, from the same number of acres, $9,100 worth. Allowing one-third to cover all expenses, it leaves a net profit of $11,997 from 22 acres for two years, or an annual profit of $272 per acre. This was done, too, in the midst of competion-thousands of acres being devoted in that State to the production of these fruits. If the New Jersey grower gets twenty (20) cents per quart for his small fruits, and two ($2) dollars per bushel for his peaches, he thinks he is doing well, yet not unfrequently the the berries shipped from Norfolk bring from $1 to $2 per quart, and peaches $6 to $8 per bushel. The question is often asked, will not the markets soon be overstocked with fruit? We say, emphatically, No! While the production of fruit has been greatly increased in the last twenty years, the demand has been greater than the supply. Much better prices are now obtained than ever before. We could give reasons why we think the business will improve, but space will, not allow us to dwell on the subject. "Now, all the region of country east of the Blue Ridge, in proximity to railroads or steamboat navigation, might be very profitably employed for this purpose. We would say to those in the tide-water region, plant early varieties, they will pay you the best; and to the people westward we would say, after supplying your local markets, plant mostly of winter apples and grapes-you will find it profitable to ship them to this and other markets. We have a fine stock of trees growing that will be ready for market the ensuing fall; and to those who are desirous of planting, or feel an interest in horticulture, we cordially invite you to call and see our stock. See Advertisement. A Maryland Milk Dairy Farm. [We have intended for some months past to take an early opportunity to give a personal inspection to the Dairy Farm and operations of Mr. Ross Winans, with a view to give our readers some account of them. Other engagements have obliged us to forego the pleasure we should have taken in doing so, and we find prepared to our hand by the intelligent Junior Editor of the Country Gentleman an article published in that journal, from which we make the following extract.-ED. FARMER.] "At the time the war came on in 1861, amidst the uncertainty and excitement that prevailed, the purchase of land seemed to be about the only mode of investment in order to secure what was tangible and substantial in exchange for the money invested. Mr. Winans ascertained that property could be had along the Patapsco river, possessing the double advantage of railway and water communication with the city, at a distance of only five or six miles, and though much impoverished, naturally of good quality, and in surface excellently adapted for the use of machinery-beautifully undulating throughout, and affording drainage even where nearest a level. He obtained one or more farms, to which various additions have since been made, until the total area now in his possession there, is not far short of seven hundred acres. He had previously owned and carried on for several years, a farm of not quite an hundred acres near the city. At first keeping but one or two cows to supply his own family with milk, he was induced to spare small quantities as a favor to friends, and had kept slowing increasing the number until, with |