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Walks.

MESSRS. EDITORS: A. R., in the Cult. and Co. Gent. for Oct. 31st, inquires for information "how to use coal tar for making a floor for stables in the basement of a barn."

"These historical data, these inductions, Coal Tar and Gravel for Stable Floors and incomplete as they may be, lead to the belief that for antiquity the Percheron yields to no other of our French races, and that the soil which has nourished and preserved it, must for horse breeding, be one of the best in France. ‘Under the feudal rule and inhabited by tenants ever at war,Perche must ever have been an equestrian country, and the horse must have been there in every epoch the companion of man. He must have been a necessity of the first class. In those times of continued war and hostile surprises, what property was more movable and so easily carried off? Also, how glorious the possession of such noble coursers, and like the Rotrous to own more than could be connted, as was proudly shown by the heraldic chevrons upon their broad banners, dis-quired. After the stone had been well mixed played from the towers of Mortagne and Nogent.

"But as a race, had the Percheron, then, the characteristics it now possesses? This is not probable; it must have been lighter, but still possessing within itself the characteristics which it presents. The essential is to prove that there was, at that period, a native race; for if the extraordinary life formerly led there if the aspect of the country, which must have been always fertile-if the historical inductions do not prove it-the universal tradition of the whole country should not leave us in this regard in any doubt.

"Let us, then, take no account of the silence of historians. This silence is no proof of the non-existence of the Percheron. Most of these writers were gentlemen of the equestrian order; they prized the saddle-horse while they ignored the equally useful rustic races."

The Guano TradE.—The imports of Peruvian guano at this port during the past year have again assumed the dimensions which characterized the trade in the article previous to the late war, and which during the continuance of the war was entirely lost to the city. During the year just closed 23 ships and barks arrived from the Chincha Islands, bringing 30,175 tons. There have also been received 1320 tons from Bolivia, 9083 tons from Navassa, 750 tons from Rodunda, and from other islands in the Atlantic 2820 tons-in all 44,148 tons; besides we have received coastwise from Eastern ports an aggregate of 2000 tons, chiefly Peruvian. Of Navassa, the imports are slightly in excess of the previous year. This article is used almost entirely in the manufacture of other fertilizers.-Balt. Sun.

Three years ago I had a floor made to a part of my barn cellar, as follows: A sufficient quantity of small stone, from one to two or three inches in diameter, was procured and put in a pile; over these was poured a sufficient quantity of coal tar to give them all a coating, which was done by mixing or shoveling over the whole pile once or twice, with long-handled shovels. No more tar should be used than barely to coat over the stone, if possible, although no great exactness is re

with the tar, they were spread over the place for the floor, and raked to a level surface.Enough was used to make the floor about three inches thick.

A quantity of coarse gravel was also put into a pile; a cavity made in the top of it, into which was poured sufficient tar to give the gravel all a coating of tar, by repeatedly shoveling it over, till it was well mixed together. It is more important not to have too much tar in this case, than with the small stone. In either case, however, it is better to use too much than too little. All the objection is, if there is too much tar added, it will take the longer for the floor to become hard.

Having well mixed the gravel and tar, it was spread over the small stone two inches or thereabout deep. The whole was then rolled with a heavy stone roller, weighing four or five hundred pounds, repeatedly, till made as compact as possible. In the corners, where the roller could not be used, a mall, such as is used by street pavers, was used. While the was strewn over, in the manner of broadcast rolling and malling was going on, the surface sowing, with fine gravel and sand, to take up the surplus tar that was continually working sand was continued, till the surface was so to the surface. The rolling and sowing of hard and dry as not to adhere to one's shoes in the least, in walking over it. This makes a very dark colored floor, but it can be made of a lighter shade by using marble dust instead of fine gravel and sand.

I think A. R. will find this method of making a floor for a barn cellar the very best that has yet been employed. It is water proof and frost

Preliminary Notice of Results on the Composition of Wheat grown for twenty years in succession on the same land. (Abstract.)

F. R. S.

proof, and, better still, RAT PROOF. No rat will rodent into this substance, and it becomes, in a few months, so hard he cannot if he would. There is only one objection to it, By J. B. Lawes, F. R. S., etc., and J. H. Gilbert, Ph.d, which is the very strong smell it gives off for a number of months, when used in a close place like a barn cellar; but the smell is said to be a sanitary one for man and beast, and I think helps to keep the rats out of the barn itself as well as the cellar.

This method has also been employed here in the city of Concord, N. H., for six or eight years past, for making door-yard walks, sidewalks, and even street crossings. One would hardly think it could be used for street crossings, subject to the daily passing of heavy and light teams, going at all sorts of speed, and also subject to the heaving and subsiding of freezing and thawing mud, in winter and spring; but such is the fact; and as yet, after five or six years trial, they have not apparently suffered in the least, but have rather grown the harder and more enduring. The smell, which reminds one, especially in the evening, of meeting a fetid animal of the weasel tribe," soon passes away when used in the open air, and is fully compensated by the pleasure of walking on the sidewalks while in their fresh and elastic state.

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But there are parties claiming that they have a patent, and therefore exclusive right, for using this method of making sidewalkswith how much truth I do not know. I am very doubtful about there being any patent; but I do know that a full and particular account of this same method can be found in the second number of the second volume, page 60, of that excellent journal, the Gardener's Monthly, published in Philadelphia, February, 1860. The account is given by the English correspondent, who says the walks have been on trial for eight years. This must carry the invention back eight or ten years at least, before it was put to use here in Concord. Sidewalks were, however, made in Manchester, N. H., before they were here, but I do not know how long a time before. I do not think any one would be put to any trouble for making a walk or a barn cellar floor in this way, for their own use, even if there is a valid patent.-Cor. Country Gent,

In the vicinity of Monroe, Mich., farmers and gardeners have planted, within three years, 37,000 grape vines.

The results had reference to the produce of a field in which wheat had now been grown, on some plots without manure, on one with farm-yard manure, and on others by different artificial mixtures, for twenty-four years in succession (1843-4 to 1866-7 inclusive.) At the Cheltenham meeting of the British Association, in 1836, the authors treated of the effects of season and manures on the composition of the crop as illustrated by the results of analysis relating to the produce of some of the plots during the first ten years of the experiments. At the Manchester meeting, in 1861, they recurred to the subject; the analytical results, which then extended to the produce of some of the plots for sixteen years, were, however, chiefly applied to the illustration of certain points in connection with the exhaustion of soils. At the Nottingham meeting, in 1866, they treated of the accumulation of the nitrogen of manure in the soil of the same experimental field. The results adduced on the present occasion showed the effects of season and manuring on the composition of both the grain and the straw during twenty years of the experimental growth.

The particulars of composition given are the percentages of dry substance, of mineral matter, and of nitrogen, and the constituents of the ash of both grain and straw, more than 200 complete ash-analyses being brought to bear on the subject; and, side by side with these, as indicating the general characters of the produce of the different seasons and plots, are given the proportion of corn to straw, the weight per bushel of the corn.

and

In the case of the plots without manure, with farm-yard manure, and with ammoniasalts alone, every year, the ash of the grain last 16, or more, and of the straw of the last 16, of the twenty years, had been analyzed; and in the case of 9 differently manured plots (including the above 3) the ash, of both corn and straw, of the first, the last, and two intermediate seasons (one bad and one good) of the last 12 of the 20 years had been analysed. It was the intention of the authors to publish the results of the investigation in detail before long; and on the present occasion they confined attention to a few of the most prominent

effects of the respective manures on the composition of the crop, when thus applied for so long a continuance, year after year on the same plot.

It is first pointed out as remarkable, though fully established by their results from the commencement, that variation in manure, even though maintained for many years in succession, and resulting in great variation in amount of produce, affects comparatively little either the proportion of corn to straw, or the weight per bushel of corn, excepting, indeed, in a few extreme cases of abnormal exhaustion or repletion. Nor do the percentages of dry substance, of mineral matter in dry substance, or of nitrogen in dry substance, vary much under the direct influence of variation in manure, unless again in very abnormal cases. Very different, however, is the effect of season; the variation in the character of the produce, in every one of the above particulars, being much greater in different seasons with the same manure than with different manures in the same

season.

Consistently with these broad facts, the composition of the ash of the grain is found to be pretty uniform under a great variety of manurial conditions in one and the same season, only in a few extreme cases of special interest varying in any material degree. The same may be said in some, though in a much less degree, of the composition of the ash of the straw, which is obviously much more directly affected by the character of the supplies within the soil.

plies within the soil, but much more by the various influences of season.

The deviations from the point of fixed and uniform composition, thus due primarily to variations in climatic circumstance, are, however, when considered in relation to other characters of the grain, sufficient to show the general connection between the comparative predominance of individual constituents and that of certain general characters of development. A few illustrations were given; but the fuller treatment of the subject, in its bearing on these as well as on other points, was reserved until the results could be considered in the detail necessary to their proper elucidation

One point of interest prominently brought out by the results relating to the composition of the straw-ash was, that a high percentage of silica was almost uniformly associated with a bad, and a low percentage with a good condition of the produce-a fact to which the authors had on former occasions called attention, but which, as was remarked by the President, was quite inconsistent with the generally accepted views on the subject.--Chem. News.

Value of Poultry Manure. There is no manure made on a farm so valuable as that of poultry. One ounce of it properly diffused in half a pound of soil, and placed in a hill of corn when planted, will be as powerful a fertilizer as ten time its weight in bard-yard manure. A foreign writer says:

"In France, as well as in our own country, most eminent chemists have proved by analysis that poultry manure is a most valuable fertilizer, and yet, for want of proper system in housing poultry it has as yet not been rendered available to rural economy. The celebrated Vauquelin says that when the value of manures is considered with relation to the amount of azote they contain, the poultry manure is one of the most active stimulants; and when, as a means of comparison, the following manures are taken, in parts of 1,000, it will be found that

The general result is that (excepting in a few abnormal cases) the variation in the composition of the ash of the grain is limited to the slight variations due to differences of development and maturation, which, in their turn, are much greater with variation of season than with variation of manure. The composition of the ash of the straw, on the other hand, much more nearly represents the total mineral matters taken up by the plant, and much less the character of development of its own more fixed and essential constituents, In other words, whilst there may be considerable range in the composition of the matters taken up by the entire plant, the tendency in the formation and ripening of the ultimate product, the seed (whether produced in small quantity or large) is to a fixed and uniform composition, the deviation from which is little directly affected by the character of the sup-flavored berry.

Horse mannre contains.....
Guano as imported..

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......40 7 Guano when sifted of vegetable, &c. .....53 9 Poultry manure.......

.......83.0

A correspondent of the Gardener's Monthly says he tried six varieties of strawberries last season and found the Hovey's Seedling to produce the sweetest and highest

Thorough Cultivation.

Here are some facts, stated by Dr. Voelkner in a lecture on the atmospheric nutrition of plants, before the Royal Agricultural Society, as to the importance of aorating and pulverizing heavy soils. But one of the difficulties met with in their cultivation is that of performing it at exactly the right time. If clayey land is ploughed when too wet, it is next to impossible to reduce it to good order by after treatment; and if too dry, it is an exceedingly laborous task to do anything with it. The necessity of constant watchfulness on the part of the farmer is never greater than in the exercise of due judgment as to the time, as well as sufficient diligence in the amount of culture he gives his land.

"Let us briefly state some of the advantages of thorough cultivation. It involves:

"1. The mechanical pulverization of the soil, giving a better seed-bed, and making the particles more accessible to the action of the roots.

"2. Better drainage, the soil being moist and mellow where it would otherwise be baked and hard.

"3 The co-operation of the atmosphere in farther decomposing the comminuted particles of soil, and setting free the mineral elements of the growing plant.

"4. The absorption from the atmosphere of a great portion of its ammonia and carbonic acid for the direct nourishment of vegetable

life.

"5. The increased effect of manures, from their more complete intermixture and consequently more perfect action.

"6. The cleansing of the lands from weeds, which not only abstract the nourishment due to the growing crop, but also generate successors, continually multiplying themselves from year to year.

"7. The better condition of the field for machine work; it dulls the knives of a reaper or mower, and leads to frequent breakages, to cut through the clods on the roughly seeded

field."

It should not be forgotten how efficient an agent in the pulverization of a heavy soil is the alternate freezing and thawing of winter. By autumn ploughing to effect this, more can be accomplished than by much labor otherwise applied. Under-draining also contributes greatly to the same end. And while much

that has been said above applies especially to heavy lands, it must not be forgotten that it has a wider bearing. "Sandy loams" says Robert Russel, “are benefited more than any other class of soils by tillage, which increases their absorbing powers." These qualities fit them especially for turnip husbandry. So also in America the sandy loams are well suited for maize, and its culture in summer. Deep cultivation, more especially in dry climates, is a most important means of increasing the retentive and absorbent qualities of light soils. The benefits of cultivation are apparent from the fact that grasses on sandy loams are liable to be scorched by the drought of summer, to a greater degree than the turnips in a well drilled field.-Mass. Ploughman.

How Fowls Grind their Food.

On this subject, S. Edward Todd discourses as follows: Fowls have no teeth to grind or masticate their food with, and the best they are able to do with it is to peck it to pieces and swallow it whole. Kernels of grain are swallowed whole by them, and as they are surrounded by a tough pellicle or skin, which the juice of the stomachs of the animals will not readily dissolve or digest, they could obtain no nourishment at all from grain, if this tough pellicle were not broken. Now, if we dissect the gizzard of a fowl of any kind, we find a lot of small gravel stones, which are usually the hardest kind of flint, granite or sand stone. Surely here is a pocket edition of farm grist mills.

Fowls swallow their food, broken or not, and it enters the crop or first stomach, and remains in it until it has become softened, more or less, when a small quantity at a time, just as grain runs into a grist mill, is forced into the gizzard among the gravel stones.This gizzard is a strong muscular stomach, and plays night and day, when there is a grist to grind, similar to bellows, contracting and expanding, thus forcing the gravel stones into the grain, and breaking it into fragments, and triturating the whole mass; after which it is in a suitable condition to be quickly digested.

A large deposit of phosphates has been discovered near Charleston, S. C., which it is believed is destined to add immensely to the wealth of that section, as it is said to be equal in value to Peruvian guano.

The American Farmer.

Baltimore, March 1, 1868.

to Tennessee, Northern Georgia and Alabama. Baltimore, with such connections, must soon become the centre for the distribution of untold wealth, and the lines of steamers now to run regularly to Liverpool and Bremen, es

TERMS OF THE AMERICAN FARMER. tablished by means of capital furnished by

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Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The address of the President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, at a recent meeting of the Board, presents the matter of the various connections and projected improvements of the Company in a very interesting light to all who are concerned for the prosperity of Baltimore.

With a view to establishing a closer relation with the Baltimore and Ohio Road, it is proposed by the Cincinnati and Marietta Road to elect as its President, Mr. John King, Jr., Vice-President of the Baltimore and Ohio Road. A perfect working connection will be made through the Parkersburg branch of the Baltimore Road, with Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Lafayette, by means of the Marietta Road.

This route, with the Metropolitan Road from the Point of Rocks, will bring Cincin nati, it is said, 126 miles nearer to Washington than by the Pittsburg and Pennsylvania route. The Connellsville route to Pittsburg, now likely to be completed, will put Baltimore in direct communication with that important point, and through it with the great Northwest, and bring Pittsburg seventy-five miles nearer to Washington than by the Pennsylvania route.

The projected arrangement for opening a way through the valley of the Shenandoah to Harrisonburg, a hundred miles, will draw tribute at once from this magnificent valley, and ultimately from all the great valley lying between the Alleghany and Blue Ridge ranges

the Railroad Company, is another most important feature of the great scheme of operations so full of promise for the future of our city and State.

Egyptian Corn Swindle.

EDS. FARMER: Please find enclosed the sum of $2, with interest, for the American Farmer for 1867. I could have saved the price of subscription had I not been taken in by that miserable humbug, Egyptian corn. I would like to see an article from you upon the subject, as regards its merits and demerits. My conclusion is that Mr. Lindsey either grossly misrepresented it or did not send the corn he advertised, Yours truly,

S. H., Hagerstown, Md.

We were equally imposed on, as our friend and hundreds of others we suppose, by this Mr. Lindsey. His advertisement presented to us very strong indications of humbuggery, but he seemed so well endorsed by public officials, and respectable names, that we were induced to publish it. Many who sent their money to him got nothing in return, and our correspondent, who seems to have got some of this famous corn, found it, we suppose, worse than nothing.

New Brunswick Oats.-We omitted accidently to call attention last month to the variety of Oats, advertised by our friends Edw'd J. Evans & Co. We are very cautious in our notice of new things, but the value of this variety of Oats, seems to be well attested, and we are moreover well assured that so respectable a firm as the Messrs. Evans, would not so persistently and industriously advertise, if they had not the fullest evidence of their intrinsic value.

We have also a circular from A. C. Pease, Hartford, Vermont, of a remarkable variety called "Norway Oats," and out West, extraordinary accounts are given of the “Surprise Oats."

All this indicates that our little agricultural excitements are taking just now a fancy for Oats.

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