PUBLISHED BY LUTHER TUCKER, | part of our own Country, as well as from the laborato Twenty copies Cultivator and twenty $10.00. ries of the Old World; because though standing on the out-posts of all that is reliable, it has never been led astray by what was novel; and, finally, because it is within the reach of ALL. We have hinted that the Farmer holds a position, AGENCY IN NEW-YORK-C. M. SAXTON, Agricultu-just now, of unusual importance to the community. ral Book Publisher, No. 152 Fulton-street, New-York, is Agent for THE CULTIVATOR and THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, and subscribers in that city who apply to him, can have their papers delivered regularly at their houses. The New Year. This must be plain to any man who observes how rapidly our population is increasing, and how far our supplies of those provisions which we are accustomed to consider absolute necessaries, fall short of the demand; how prices of produce are continually rising, and though now and then fluctuating, never perma We are happy to be able to say that the friends of nently declining, and how large a market we might THE CULTIVATOR have, with a very general and gratifying unanimity, responded to our wishes, as expressed in the last number, in regard to procuring subscribers for the new volume. In places where there has been but one heretofore, large numbers are now coming in, and very many new Post Offices are daily being added to our list. We had hoped indeed for an increased circulation in 1855, but so far as the interest of our friends can indicate the result thus early, our former numbers will be multiplied rather than merely have abroad had we any thing beyond our own demand. With a ready market for every product of his fields or stock which he can spare, and this at the very highest prices, the farmer is thus well able to take his turn in sneering at those who have in times past sneered at him. All the world is looking to him for renewal and continuance of its means of life, and offering and paying therefor no stinted or small returns. How little reason has he then to refuse to avail himself of all the agricultural information that can be obtained, on such a paltry excuse as "hard times,"-how much the more rather, to secure every possible source of knowledge, by which his crops may be increased, and his profits receive accessions. While we should be glad to have desire is to obtain the name of EVERYBODY ELSE, who cultivates the ground in large or little measure, or who has even a taste for rural subjects, for THE CULTIVATOR. We trust that this will, the present winter, be accomplished in a greater degree than ever before. We expect it, because of the general and increasing feeling that Agricultural Reading, of a sound and standard character, ought to receive a circulation commensurate with the benefits it confers; because the present time is peculiarly one to awaken both among farmers themselves, and through the whole community, a sense of their importance to its well-being, and to teach a lesson of the absolute and universal necessity of a better system of culture; because THE CULTIVATOR presents the best teachings of the best practice; because its correspondents contribute to its pages, from their every day's accessions of knowledge, in every home consumption imperatively demands increased supplies; that there is no danger of prices failing, and that farming is at this moment attracting more attention in the thinking part of the community than any other one pursuit. Shall the Farmer be the only one to neglect himself? OUR TERMS have been received every where, so far as we learn, with unqualified approbation; and the extraordinary and unparalleled cheapness of Twenty copies with Twenty Registers for $10, will continue we hope, to call forth the interest with which it has thus far been met. OUR PREMIUMS should awaken general competition. Many a man who is now thinking he would make some endeavors in our behalf if there were better prospects of success, might, were he to try, raise from a single club, up to a number large enough to draw out the fifty dollars. Will not all do ~ their share? Whether you can get one friend, or ten or twenty, to subscribe, it will be an advance for your neighborhood, and such an one as we should be glad to chronicle. There is one other suggestion we wish to make. The number of subscribers might be every where largely increased if each ONE would do what he can to assist the agent, and not all throw the whole burden on his shoulders. When an agent has made up a club, let each man take hold of the matter in his own, or some one locality, and pick up all the names he can, now and through the year, and hand them to the agent. In this way a better spirit would be aroused through the whole town, and no little benefit conferred upon the cause of agriculture. We can only repeat what we have so often said, that we shall be most happy, not only to furnish every applicant with specimens of both our publications for himself, but to send them to any friends, whose addresses he may be kind enough to forward; and that any body who thinks there is room in his vicinity for a club for either the COUNTRY GENTLEMAN OF CULTIVATOR, shall receive a copy of our Annual Register to assist him in making it up. It will show, aside from being a sample of the Register itself, the character of the illustrations and mechanical execution of our papers; and as to its own merits as a RURAL ANNUAL, we are daily receiving the highest commendation, not in words only, but in substantial orders. And in conclusion, we cannot let the opportunity pass without tendering to our friends the compliments of the season-A HAPPY NEW-YEAR to all! To our Agents and Friends. As an inducement to agents to exert themselves to obtain subscriptions, aside from the consciousness of the benefit they will confer upon their neighbors and the community by bringing such works into more general circulation, we offer the Following Premiums. 1. To the one who shall send us the largest amount of cash subscriptions to the CULTIVATOR and the COUNTRY GENTLEMAN for 1855, with the pay in advance, at the rate of Fifty Cents for each copy of the former, and One Dollar and Fifty Cents-(the lowest club price, where ten or more copies are taken)-for each subscriber to the COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, previous to the 10th of April next, FIFTY DOLLARS in cash. 2. To the one sending us the next largest amount, FORTY-FIVE DOLLARS. 3. For the next largest,.... FORTY DOLLARS. 4. For the next largest,.... THIRTY-FIVE DOLL'S. 5. For the next largest,.... THIRTY DOLLARS. 6. For the next largest,.... TWENTY-FIVE DOLL'S. 7. For the next largest,.. 8 For the next largest,. TWENTY DOLLARS. 9. For the next largest,.... TEN DOLLARS. 10. For the next largest,.. FIVE DOLLARS. Agents cannot be too particular in writing the names of their subscribers, and their post-offices in a legible manner. The state, also, should always be given. BUSINESS NOTICES. Terms of the Cultivator. For a single copy,....... ........FIFTY CENTS. Twenty copies, with ANNUAL REGISTER to each, $10,00 The money in all cases to accompany the order, and subscriptions invariably to commence with the January num ber. Clubs need not necessarily take their papers from the same Post-Office, but it is preferred, where not inconvenient, that they should go to one office, and if possible to one address. After one club has been ordered, agents may continue to send subscribers on the same terms--i. e., Fifty Cents each, for both the CULTIVATOR and REGISTER. To prevent mistakes, it may be well to number the subscribers, as they are sent in, 1, 2, 3, &c. The price of the back vols. of THE CULTIVATOR, bound, is 75 cents-they will be sent post-paid, by mail, at $1. per vol. Terms of the Country Gentleman. Correspondents are particularly requested, when they favor us with any facts for publication, or any inquiries or suggestions intended for the editors, to write on separate sheets, or on such parts of their sheets, that all notes for the editors may be easily separated from the business, parts of their letters. Great care should be taken to write the name and address of each subscriber distinctly, thus: "John Smith,....Lenox,....Berkshire Co.,....Mass." Specimen Numbers and Prospectuses will be sent to all who desire them. We are daily receiving the most flattering compliments in behalf of the Country Gentleman, in the letters from our subscribers in different parts of the country, a column of extracts from which we may give hereafter. In the mean time we cannot appeal to our friends too earnestly to aid us in extending the circulation of the Country Gentleman. We ask all our subscribers to do us the favor, to procure one additional subscriber. If they will do this, they will not only benefit the proprietor, but enable him to add very essentially to its value whereby all its readers will be made to share in the benefit conferred. Foreign Correspondence. BAVARIAN AGRICULTURE MODE OF CURING HAY. I spent a few days of August in the Bavarian highlands, among the Alps, lying a day's drive south from Munich, and just on the border of the Austrian Tyrol. In the numerous villages among these mountains, may be found thousands of people who quit the cities of Bavaria, and even of the northern kingdoms, to find relaxation in the country. Here are numerous beautiful Makes, (ponds we should call them,) often shut in by the mountains; the latter are more or less covered with the greenest wood or pasture, or lift up singularly sharp and jagged peaks to the height of 6 to 10,000 feet. There is no end to new and pleasant, often imposing, scenery. The peasantry were busily occupied in gathering their harvests. In the valleys Toticed many small fields of wheat, barley and oats; w the Álps, (Alp, means strictly not a mountain, but mountain grass-lands,) they were gathering the hay crop. The hay is cut here several times during the summer, as I saw it being mown in many fields where its height was not more than three or four inches. Owing to this frequent cutting and the abundant rains that fall in the highlands, the grass is very fine, thickset, and of an intense color; the meadows are indeed very like English lawns. On account of the variability of the weather, a peculiar method of curing hay is practiced. One observes numerous little log barns fifteen by twenty feet square, and ten feet high, scattered over the lower Alps. (I have counted more 'than 100 of them from a single position, and they communicate a singular effect to the landscape, as their roofs, in common with those of all the peasants' buildings, are thickly overlaid with large stones.) Into these shanties the hay is thrown while half dry, and thoroughly trodden down. It shortly ferments, and the hay becomes dark brown in color, and forms a quite solid mass, which may be cut with a spade. Prof. Frass, of the Munich University, says in his Principles of Agriculture, that this so-called "brown hay is as good for cattle as ordinary hay; it is in fact preferred by them, and appears to be more nourishing." Some of the small grain fields promised a good crop. I found occasionally in the standing wheat, the yellow grain-worm which often makes such sad havoc in the United States. The soil is mostly good, though the a mount of arable land is small. Many families keep a cow or two and a few goats, while here and there a farmer is found who owns much land and manages a considerable dairy. The females mostly care for the farm, &c. The men seem to be occupied in mechanical pursuits, (manufacture of wooden toys,) attend to getting out firewood, or amuse themselves in chamois hunting. The management of manure seems not to be very advantageous. Not only in the highlands but in the vicinity of Munich, one sees a manure heap often very near the dwelling, in a cubic pile several feet high, and surrounded with a ditch overflowing with the rich-brown essence of fertility, the whole exposed to wind and weather. The farm implements are very simple. Scythes are wide short blades with straight handles, but do their work admirably. Here they are sharpened with a whet-stone, and not as in north Germany with a hammer! Hand rakes are very good, but the great wooden hay-forks are not to be recommended. I have only seen improved implements in the exhibition; none on farms. I hope however to visit shortly some farms where the English management has been introduced. FOOD AND HABITS OF THE PEOPLE. The food and habits of living of a people afford, to a certain extent, an idea of the condition of agriculture and the arts among them. The bread consumed in Bavaria, is mostly made of rye, although among the better classes wheat bread is largely used. The rye-bread is not sour, as is that made in north Germany, or at most only very slightly so. It is usually well made, and always contains a considerable quantity of caraway, fennel, coriander, and such like aromatic seeds. Wheat-bread is made of various qualities. The cheapest is apparently wet up with water. Another kind is called milk-bread; still another is called egg-bread. The weight and quality of the bread furnished by the bakers is constantly controlled by the city authorities. From time to time there appears in the city papers, a "Regulated scale of prices for flour and bread in Munich," a copy of which hangs at every baker's door. From one just issued I derive the following rates, having reduced the Bavarian weights and measures to English: Wheat, per bushel, Rye, 66 66 ............. .... $2.01 to $2.14 1.60 to 1 66 5 cents. 3 cents. Wheat bread, per lb.,.. Rye bread, These prices are higher than usual, though much lower than they were in the spring. A national article of food in Bavaria, is a sort of dough-nut, here called nudel, which is consumed in fabulous quantities on all festival occasions. From the annexed prices of butcher's meat, it will be seen how the different kinds of flesh are prized. Fattened beef sells at present at 7 cts. per lb.-veal, 8 cts. per lb.-mutton, 5 cts. per lb., and pork 10 cts. per lb The butcher is allowed to sell the good and inferior pieces together at one price. Veal is favorite food. It is usually quite young, and may be found in a great variety of forms on the eating-house tables. Sausages stand very high in public esteem. I remember to have read that St. Boniface, the first christian missionary among the tribes of Germany, persuaded them "to abandon the barbarous practice of eating horse-flesh." But it seems that the old appetite has broken out again after having slept for ages, and that too, where the memory of St. Boniface is perpetuated in the most splendid manner. In Munich, Nuremberg, Vienna, and other cities, there are public establishments where horse-beef is sold. Some time since there appeared in the leading German journal, the "Allgemeine Zeitung," an able article advocating the use of this kind of flesh, asserting its good qualities, ridiculing the prejudices against it, and recommending it to the poor on account of its cheapness, costing but half as much as the ordinary butcher's meat. The excellent flesh of the roe-deer and of the hare are cheaply served every day in the better eating-houses. Among vegetables the potato is very largely consumed. It was introduced into Bavaria by Count Rumford, 60 or 70 years ago, and its use though at first opposed by extreme prejudice, became shortly universal. But turnips, carrots, scorzonera, not to mention cabbage in all its varieties, are found in great profusion in the markets. Fruits in their season are abundant, of fair quality, and cheap. In the newer parts of the city, may be found numerous milk shops, where milk and all its preparations are sold, and there may be met students and others making a cheap and substantial supper of rye bread and milk, of which a very satisfactory quantity may be obtained for 4 kreuzers, or less than 3 cents. Ex cellent butter is brought into the city on market days, but it is always unsalted. Of cheese I am no judge, but one variety called Limburger, is too highly flavored to pass unnoticed. It is seen in the market in chalky-white rolls, here and there streaked with yel low and green, its look in every way unattractive, and it loads the air with an odor which strongly reminds one of a passage in Hamlet" something is rotten in the state of Denmark." Bread with this cheese, is commonly a last dish at the German table d'hote. On the Sweet Potato. A correspondent in the 17th number of the present vol. of the Country Gentleman, wishes to know something about the culture of the sweet potato, &c In the first place, he wishes to know the cheapest mode for keeping them for seed. If he only wishes to keep a few for seed for his own use, I think the cheapest plan is to get a box large enough to hold six or seven bushels of potatoes, besides chaff enough to cover the potatoes about a foot thick; sink the box about three or four feet in the ground so as to get below the frost. An elevated place should be chosen for this purpose; after the box is sunk, put in the potatoes and then the chaff; cover it over with some loose plank, fill up with dirt, and raise a mound over them to turn off water, and have besides a little covering of plank to aid in keeping off the water. But if he wishes to have potatoes to sell, and to eat all the winter too, a good plan is to dig a cellar in the ground something like an ice-house; have a good air tight floor even with the top of the ground, and a house above of course; have uprights reaching from the bottom of the cellar to the floor above -nail some plank on the uprights so as to form a sort of box to put the potatoes in, about 50 or 75 bushels in a box. These uprights should be put in a line on each side of the potato house, leaving a passage beeween for convenience in getting about through the house. It makes no difference about having anything on the ground to pour your potatoes on, for they keep just as well without. I find that the only difficulty in keeping potatoes, consists in keeping the house at the right tem-> But the Bavarian is less characterized by his meat than by his drink. So far as I have had opportunity to observe, the water is good, and it is not considered dangerous as a drink as is the case in some parts of Europe. Tea is little used, but every body drinks cof-perature, which I think is between 45 and 60 degrees fee, a cup or two of strong coffee and a roll of bread constitutes the morning meal. After dinner the better classes must have their coffee again; but it is beer which the Bavarian considers as the national blessing, and Munich furnishes this drink of the most esteemed quality, and in quantities truly enormous. "Brewing is the most flourishing trade in Bavaria; it employs more than 5,600 establishments and nearly 96 million gallons are made annually. It is also said to furnish two-thirds of the whole state revenue." In the evening nearly the whole male population of Munich assembles in the beer houses. An expert drinker often consumes 8 or 10 quarts of beer in a few hours, but it is drunk so slowly-enjoyment and not intoxication being the object-that the more startling evils of intemperance are hardly perceptible here. Moderation is perhaps characteristic of the Bavarian. He is moderate in eating, and also (time taken into the account) in drinking, and certainly he is moderate in labor. The intensity of thought and action that belongs to the American character, is rarely manifested here. But Bavaria is waking up. As the ex-king Ludwig was unequalled as a patron of the fine arts, the present Sovereign promises to become illustrious in fostering science and industry. He has already gathered many men of note to his capital, and the University, strengthened by such names as Liebig, Knapp and Pfeufer, will continue to be one of the most numerously frequented institutions of Europe. S W. JOHNSON. Munich, Sept. 1854. Farenheit, so the potatoes will neither freeze nor grow. The above house can be made accessible at all times by a trap door, and a small step ladder. In the second place, whether it is better to plant the potatoes in the ground, or sprout them, and plant the sprouts? I think it decidedly better to sprout them, for the sprouts of one potato will go as far as half a dozen potatoes without sprouting. Thirdly-How to make a bed? I lay off a bed about 14 feet long by 64 wide, with somewhat of southern exposure; haul manure from the stable, and keep piling on my bed till I get it about 2 feet high, taking care to build the sides and ends of my bed up straight Next I make a frame 12 feet long by 4 wide. I put this on my bed; then I get dirt where I can get it the handiest, and cover the manure about 3 or 4 inches deep. Then I wait till the beat rises and falls again to about 90 degrees Farenheit. Then I cut my potatoes in pieces from 1 to 3 inches long-put about a bushel and a half to a bed of the above size, and cover the potatoes an inch deep with some light dirt from the forest; then water whenever they need it. In this way I have a good lot of plants at planting time. Next, what sort of land is best for them? I think that land which will bring a good corn crop is the best for sweet potatoes. I never use manure for sweet potatoes unless I think the ground not rich enough for them, for I think it makes the vines too luxuriant ; such being the case, I dont think the potatoes grow as large as they would otherwise; when I think it necessary to use manure, I prefer stable manure to any have yet tried. On about six acres of the above sort of land, I raised this year about 800 bushels of potatoes, which I consider a tolerable crop for the present dry seasou. As to planting, I think it decidedly preferable to plant in ridges or rows, to planting in hills, for two or three reasons. First, the ridges are much more easily made, and are also much easier cultivated. Then I think the yield per acre much greater than when grown in hills. Besides in hills the labor of cultivating must all bo done with the hand, while in ridges it can almost wholly be done with the plow. Lastly, I plant my potatoes 2 feet or 24 feet apart on the ridge. I find a great saving of plants in this way, and the hills being so far apart, the potatoes grow much larger: the yield I think is much greater than if the hills were closer. Two beds of the size I have described above, will plant an acre as above. RICH'D YOUNG. Springdale, Ky., Nov. 6, 1854. Subsoil Plowing Again. Quickset Hedges-No. 1. EDS. CO. GENTLEMAN-As I write from experience, it will be necessary to be prolix in order to explain proceed successfully with this work. The preparation clearly and to enable the reader understandingly to of the ground under the most favorable circumstances, will be my first point; and secondly, the preparation of ground in unfavorable places-such as are wet or boggy. Most writers recommend deep digging and heavy manuring, but I doubt much if they succeeded to their heart's content in making a good hedge by so doing. I never saw any that did, but have known much injury done by it. Land that is dry and healthy-unsheltered by trees or fences, is most favorable for the growth of Quicks or White Thorn-a clay bottom is most desirable, but I have never failed on any kind, whether sand, gravel or any other bottom, only on clay the thorn grows stronger. Dig one spit deep, three feet or more wide, clearing out all roots, old wood, and foul weeds. This latter is of essential consequence to the growth of the hedge. Then lay a line where you wish the hedge to grow. Let the line be a good length, say twelve or more rods long. With a hoe level the ground, removing all unevenness in the line, which will add much to the beauty of the work when finished; then beat the ground firmly and evenly with the back of a spade or shovel, mostly on the back side of the line, so that when the trench is dug for the plants there may be a firm bank to plant against. It will give the workman less trouble in making the trench. This done, strain the line again, and make sure all is of a proper level. Then commence the trench for the plants, which should be somewhat of this shape, V, when finished, the upright bank being next the line, against which the plants are placed at regular distances and about four inches deep. For a front or ornamental hedge, the plants may be four inches apart--farm hedge or line hedges six or eight inches; for plashed eight, ten or twelve inches is close enough. The plants being placed in the trench, a little earth should be thrown in on the roots and trodden down; then fill the trench nearly to the top, and give a firm and even treading on the trench side, and fill up even with the back bank. If any plant should stand irregularly, straighten it up with the finger and thumb of both hands, pressing the earth firm MESSRS. EDITORS-In the Nov. No. of the Cultivator, I notice an article signed "A Subscriber," Long Island, making inquiries in regard to subsoil plowing. Now, if he waits until all scientific agriculturists agree on the subject before he tries it for himself, he will not be likely to be benefited very soon from the result; and my advice to him would be to try it at once himself, and if he is afraid to subsoil, let him plow deep with a large plow, and, perhaps, he will get some hints from it that will be of more interest to him than the experiments of others. A few facts in regard to my own experience in deep plowing: My farm is quite level; soil light vegetable loam; subsoil pretty stiff clay. Four years ago I noticed where a large tree had blown out by root, bringing up a large quantity of the subsoil that, becoming mixed with the soil it invariably produced better crops and ripened earlier, and was not affected by drouth; and taking the hint, I began to deepen my furrows in plowing until I turned up soil to the depth of ten and twelve inches, and the result has been most apparent and satisfactory, increasing the yield very materially, while it is not so liable to be effected by neither excessive rains or drouth; of the latter I have had a good opportunity of testingly around it to keep it in its place. the present season, and the result has been that on lands thus plowed I have the present fall, cut more clover seed to the acre than I ever cut before, while my neighbors who do not subsoil have cut none. But, I would not disguise the fact, that I have been much stimulated and assisted in my farming operations, by taking and reading a number of agricultural papers, carefully examining the theories, and putting such in practice as commended themselves to my judgement as promising the best results; and it is needless to say, that in some instances I have been disappointed, while in others, I have made some glorious discoveries. And I would say to your correspondent and all others, go thou and do likewise, make your own experiments and you will get facts for your pains, that will be of more value to you than all the experiments of others put together. J. H. MCGREW. Piqua, Ohio. In wet or boggy ground, it will be necessary to raise a bank, unless the water can be drained off in some way, which is most advisable. I find the less elevation this plant has, the better it will grow-that is, avoid ditching as much as possible next the hedge. Our climate is too dry in summer to require it, and the frost in winter is apt to expose the roots by removing the earth in our frequent thaws. TIME. In wet land, the spring is most advisable, but I have succeeded well in the fall by planting deeper and placing a fence board on the surface of the ground on each side of the row close to the plant; this prevents the plant being thrown out. |