Hedges.

It has been asserted, and doubtless with truth, that the cost of FENCES throughout the country, is twenty times as great as the value of all the specie within it. No apology is therefore required for occupying some attention with the subject of hedges; and we hope valuable and reliable knowledge may result from investigations on the subject.

We have received two communications from men o experience, in reply to the inquiry of our correspondent A., a few weeks since. They both reside in the same district of country, and are both strongly in favor of the English Hawthorn. Although differing from them somewhat in opinion, we give the substance of their remarks, in order to throw all the light we are able to do on different sides of the subject.

In England, the business of "hedging and ditching," is a trade of itself, requiring much experience and some skill. Hence the reason that English farmers in this country are more successful in their experiments than others; and usually employing the hawthorn, they give this plant a favorable chance for comparison with other hedge plants. On the other hand, the Osage orange at the west has been commonly planted by those who have little knowledge of the treatment of hedges, and many of their attempts, as a matter of course, have signally failed.

Failures in hedging result from two CLASSES of causes, and differences in opinion and misjudging, of, ten arise from confusing them. The first class of causes, consists of all the different kinds of bad management merely-defective planting, gaps, want of cutting back, neglected tillage, &c. All these may be remedied. The second class, results from defects in the plants themselves, as want of natural hedginess, stoutness of growth, want of thorns, liability to the attacks of insects and diseases, &c. These generally cannot be remedied.

On rather moist, rich, and not very heavy soils, we have observed the hawthorn to do admirably in Western New-York during the first ten or fifteen years of its growth. We have seen a beautiful hedge of it, twenty years old, that promises to endure a hundred, so far as we can see at present. But on ordinary soils, it has more commonly failed before twenty years old. There are two farms in western New-York, one in Ontario county, and the other in Niagara, mostly fenced with hawthorn, that for a few years promised every thing that could be expected, but are now becoming full of gaps, dead plants, and as a consequence, those peculiarly unsightly appearances, holes stopped with rails, dead brush, &c. But the most discouraging fact, is the disaster which occurred many years ago at the east, where the loss of the hawthorn hedges, after they had been generally adopted and relied on, by a sudden attack of insects, was estimated greater in a single township, than if all the dwellings had been destroyed by fire. We do not know but such a disaster may be repeated. All plants belonging to the same natural order as the thorn, apple, &c., are liable to the attacks

of the borer. The native Newcastle thorn, after being considered unobjectionable and infallible for many years, was destroyed in great numbers by this insect.

The buckthorn possesses eminently two advantages, poison to repel all animals from touching it, and extreme hardiness for transplanting. But the ground for it must be made very rich, and the cultivation must be of a high order, or its growth will not be strong enough. With such treatment, we have seen it made into strong barriers. The stretched-wire, recommended for the privet by our correspondent B., would probably render the defence very complete. Its want of thorns is a decided objection, when required for fruit gardens.

The Osage Orange is tender-but after many years observation, we have not found this to injure its qualities for a hedge. Young plants sending up shoots six feet the first season, will be killed back no further than these shoots should be sheared-and when older, slower growing, and protected by being in a thick hedge, we have never had more than a few inches of the shoots killed, even when the thermometer has sunk to 8° or 10° below zero. It is incomparably the most thorny hedge plant we have seen, every inch of every shoot furnishing a sharp stiff spire. On soils at all wet, it should be placed very nearly over a tile drain, which will greatly contribute to its hardiness.

We do not mention these facts for the purpose of controverting the opinions of our correspondents, but merely for suggesting inquiry, and to enable our readers to judge for themselves with the assistance of what light we can furnish them. Facts, distinctly stated, and experiments with their duration mentioned, and not merely opinions, from those who have made experiments with a full knowledge of the requirements of successful hedging before them, will always sist correct conclusions on this subject.

Seed Onions.

It is a matter of some surprise to find that most, if not all, of the vegetable growers of this vicinity, depend upon buying the sets of this, to them, valuable crop, instead of growing them themselves. Valuable, because it brings in an early return of a very saleable article, green onions; and the ground is clear in ample time for the main crop of turnips. We saw recently a pile of these small onions, probably two bushels, which cost the nice little sum of thirteen dollars, which, had they been grown at home, would have been so much added to the produce of the garden, and that not a very extensive one. It was suggested that the method of growing them should be given in the Country Gentleman, which might lead to their being grown in this vicinity, at least for home consumption. It is simply as follows:

Sow the seed as early in April as the weather will permit, very thick, in shallow drills, six inches apart. Keep them thoroughly clean of all weeds, and allow them to remain without any thinning. By the middle of July, they will be about the size of peas and beans, when they are taken up, harvested, and stored away for next spring's use.

In the neighborhood of Philadelphia, hundreds of acres of onions are grown for shipment to the southern market; and most of the gardeners there plant these small onions for permanent crops, instead of sowing the seed. It is generally thought that the onions come larger; and another thing, which is important where so much breadth is occupied, is that they are easier cleaned, requiring but little hand labor. EDGAR SAN

DERS.

The Plow-An Improvement Wanted.

In the report of a Lecture by the Professor of Agriculture in the University of Edinburgh, we find the following remarks, which contain a suggestion well deserving of consideration, especially by those of superior mechanical genius. There are, we know, two implements by which the defect of the plow may be obviated, or its results remedied, in part-grubbers and subsoil plows;-but probably there may be now latent in some brain of superior mechanical powers, a yet more excellent way? To indicate and point attention to a want, is, at all events, one of the most likely ways of obtaining a supply. For this reason we think the hints subjoined, should be widely scattered, that they may find a fitting soil in which to take root and bring forth fruit. We have condensed and abridged as much as possible.

Although the necessities of man compel him to use the plow in preference to the spade, it is admitted by all, that the work done by the two implements is of a very different character, the plow leaving the soil in a condition far less suited to the purposes of vegetation than the spade. This is more prominent on heavy soils than on light. By the operation of the spade the soil is left loose, the original surface with its weeds and exhausted mould, being completely buried, and a fresh surface exposed. But the plow is a tool of a rougher nature. It is, in reality, a wedge forcibly dragged through the soil at a certain depth, lifting up that portion which is above it, at the expense of making that which is below it more compact, this latter receiving virtually all of the force required for the separation. The consequence is, that more or less, according to the soil, this lower surface is compressed to such a degree, as to leave a dense and compact surface, through which the roots of plants must find it difficult or impossible to penetrate. The furrow slice, too, instead of being completely inverted, is not turned over to more than one-half or three-fourths of the way, the surface weeds are imperfectly buried, and the soil is not changed to the same extent as by the spade.

The great desideratum in practical agriculture is, therefore, to obtain an implement that shall have, like the plow, the capability of doing a laige amount of work, and like the spade, of doing it in such a manner as to satisfy those conditions which we consider desirable for the purposes of successful cultivation. Many implements and machines have been constructed, and much skill and ingenuity from time to time expended in the endeavor to realize this great desideratum; hitherto, however, the results have not been very satisfactory. In no form of it, does the plow cultivate thoroughly; it requires to be followed by roller, or harrow, or other tools to complete the work, which after all is not so well done as by one operation of the spade.

What we want is, not plowing so much as cultivation, or that process of disintegrating and fitting the soil, which the farmer by necessity performs by three, four or five separate operations, and then not so effectually as the gardener accomplishes in one.

Prof. Liebig's New Work.

THE RELATIONS OF CHEMISTRY TO AGRICULTURE, and the Agricultural experiments of J. B. Lawes. By JUSTUS V. LIEBIG-published by Luther Tucker, Albany, 1855-price 25 cts.

After reading LIEBIG's pamphlet twice, I came to the inevitable conclusion that if the charges against his mineral theory, (endorsed as they are by Mr. Lawes, Pusey, Wolff and others,) are not true, the evidence contained in this brochure, is sufficient at least to show that the great German chemist and distinguished author is obnoxious to the implications of his opponents by the pertinacity in which he still clings to the main points in his first theory; and the ingenuity and special pleading he employs to lessen the value of any considerable artificial application of the salts of ammonia to growing crops. It would seem that the learned Professor had been somewhat mystified by the great success of the first practical experiment of his mineral application, on a soil which of all others was perhaps the most thoroughly exhausted of all the mineral and organic constituents of vegetation; for he tells us that the whole ten acres would not give the vegetable de quoi "to feed one sheep." But what his success might have been with the minerals alone, he leaves us without the means of knowing, as he did not risk it singly on a single plot of ground, as each one was also treated with either stable-dung, saw-dust, forest scrapings, or other refuse, all containing nitrogen to form ammonia in the soil. And may we not also infer that it was the ammonia formed in the decomposition of matter, and from the refuse of crops, which he says were "fed or left on the ground," that kept up the four years increasing fertility of the soil. But if the Baron does not yield to Mr. Lawes' theory of the necessity of extra ammonia salts, his unlearned gardener, who succeeds him as proprietor of the ten acres, carries out Mr. Lawes' theory to the letter; for the Baron himself tells us that this man kept "two cows and several head of cattle" on these ten acres, and that "all the animal excrements produced on the premises, and especially the urine, were collected with the greatest care, and of course have been incorporated with the soil."

Mr. Lawes' experiments were probably commenced on a soil poor in organic matter, but containing sufficient undissolved mineral elements for a crop, needing only ammonia salts to make them soluble and available to plants. And may we not here premise, without offense to either of these distinguished antagonists, that the diverse nature of the soils on which they each experimented, may account in some measure for the enthusiastic tenacity of each in favor of his own theory; for after all, the theories of both experiments agree as to the indispensability of both mineral and organic food for crops; they disagree only in the details of quantity. But if Liebig has the most learning, he has also decidedly the most enthusiasm, for he tells us that his experiment field will "retain its fertility, if there be as much soil-ingredients (mineral of course) returned to it yearly, as are removed in the crops." He farther says that "a deficiency or excess of phosphate of lime,

There is a very general complaint upon the subject of the judges appointed at fairs, the mode of their appointment, and the hasty, imperfect, and often erroneous judgments, they pass upon the articles presented for competition. Judges are often appointed, both in the State and County Societies, at the suggestion of interested parties who happen to be present at the day of the fair, who are either incompetent or indifferent to their duties, and the result is, general dissatisfaction.

I have noticed some allusion to this subject and to other defects in agricultural societies, in the Report of the President of the Niagara County Ag. Society, published in the volume of Transactions of the State Society for 1853, to which I beg to refer such of your readers as are interested in this matter.

My personal experience in exhibiting, has perhaps increased my repugnance to the hap hazard way of appointing judges. I ventured to take one animal to a late county fair, and although thought worthy a premium at a previous state fair, and a first premium at the preceding county fair in the same county, my poor Durham Bull failed to attract even a passing glance from the chairman of the judges, (appointed to fill a vacancy) who informed me after all was over, that he was not aware such an animal was on the ground! Civis. Utica, April, 1855.

Two Horse Cultivator.

MESSES. EDITORS-I would like to recommend to

The Bee Moth.

MESSRS. EDITORS.-Mr. B. N. WARNER, in a late no. of your paper says: "Will some experienced person inform me through the CULTIVATOR, what will de

stroy the Bee-moth or worms, and what kind of boxes are best suited to prevent their depredations." This subject being in my line, it may be a duty to offer a few suggestions, even if I fail to answer his questions satisfactorily.

The following is perhaps as effectual as anything. Mix with water, molasses and vinegar in proportions to be palatable, and place it in shallow dishes among the hives at night-while sipping this, the moth is apt to fall in and drown. Also, put up a cage or box for the Wren; he is a valuable assistant, and will pick up hundreds of moths and larva. Crush the heads of all the worms found under the hive, particularly in spring. After the hive becomes full of bees, and the worms are no longer found on the floor, split elders lengthwise, scrape out the pith, and lay them pith side down on the floor-a great many will creep inside to spin their cocoons; they should be destroyed once or twice a week. Having found most of these remedies in some agricultural papers, I have tried them to some extent; they are good as far as they go, because every moth or its larva destroyed is one the less; yet there are always" enough more left of the same sort," to eat up the contents of any hive left exposed.

As to "what kind of boxes" (hives I suppose)" are

us here, a Two Horse Cultivator, made after the old crotch drag fashion. You want nine cultivator teeth; or you may have less or more, as the strength of your team may be; you can have cast iron, or steel teeth, (the latter far preferable)-place one in front-the others opposite of each other; have the teeth about eighteen inches apart in the timbers, and a drag tooth in each hind end of the side pieces. This is to prevent a track being left by the two hind cultivator teeth. This must be rather longer than the old fashion crotch drag and flare at the ends, or else it will work rather bad. The side pieces should be three inches by five. The teeth must point exactly ahead. Have a hook on top of the forward end, to hitch your team to, and not exactly at the end as we usually do on harrows. This implement will do the work of three common harrows, on land that has been plowed in the fall. I use the harrow once or twice in a place, then go on with the cultivator, and if your ground is dry enough to work good, you get well paid for your labor, for getting in wheat, barley, oats, or any kind of grain. This implement is far before the common harrow. We know how the corn cultivator works, in our corn fields. In like manner does the two horse cultivator work for Bowed grain. Z. S. E.

LEAVES absorb and give out moisture, and inhale air; they are, consequently, the most important organs of a plant, and if they are destroyed or injured, the whole plant suffers.

the hive "best suited" to the wants of the bee. I use the common hive, and for the last twenty years, the loss of stocks by the moth has been less than one per

cent.

I presume Mr. WARNER is like thousands of others, who suppose the moth the principle cause of failure in Bee-culture, and flatters himself that to get rid of them, success would be next to certain; hence the inquiry for some particular hive, and means to destroy them. I would advise him and all others, who expect success with bees, to depend on nothing of the kind— it will prove a "broken staff." A moth-proof-hive, is not yet invented-shall I say, never will be. To save from the worms the contents of a hive in warm weather, accessible to the bees without them to help defend it, is beyond the skill of the apiarian. I can assure him that nine stocks in ten destroyed by the moth, would be as effectually lost without them. Consequently, we must go beyond these effects for the cause, the worms are only secondary or carrying out some other fatality, and are found in the last link of cause and effect instead of first. Prevention is better than cure. Let us study the causes of a failure of the bees, the natural guardians. Keep the stocks strong in numbers, and they will defy the attacks of the moth. Here then is the whole secret of success-it is first and last, and all important. M. QUINBY, Author of Mysteries of Bee-keeping. Palatine Church, N. Ÿ.

FENCES. It is estimated that the fences in this country cost twenty times the amount of all the spe

cie in it.

Potatoes for Ewes and Lambs.

WM. E. WHEELER states in the last number, that his sheep, wintered on oats, corn (and hay ?) until they began to lamb, then on potatoes, do not give milk, and the lambs die. His sheep were better fed than most sheep, and it is to be presumed were in good condition. Under such circumstances it is unusual for the lambs to die. Nature had no such intention, and has been thwarted by violence. There is a cause, and it should be discovered.

One of my neighbors, who keeps large and vigorous sheep, wintered in the same manner on hay with corn and oats, and at yeaning time changed in the same way to potatoes, obtained from the experiment precisely Mr. Wheeler's result. The loss of his lambs was so unusual and great, that he is convinced that potatoes were the fatal cause, and would now as soon feed his yeaning ewes with ergot. If this opinion is correct, it can be proved only by the cumulative evidence of like results from many experiments; but although the above two do not fully prove any thing, or justify belief, they should exete inquiry and direct a careful observation.

In reply to the question of best food for ewes and lambs, I would suggest that no change of food should be made suddenly. When the food is changed, there is a necessary change in the animal machinery of digestion and assimilation. This change requires a certain time during which the wants of the animal are not fully supplied.

2d. The change when made, should not be from more to less nutritious food, as from corn and oats to potatoes; and

3d If a change must be made, it should not be at the critical period of parturition.

During gestation the food should be not changed, but slightly and carefully increased until the last few weeks, when it should be alike until the lamb is two or three days old; then increase the food without much fear.

The best food for sheep is grass, and there is no equivalent. In winter I have had best success with hay made from small herds grass and clover on dry land, and yielding a ton or little more to the acre. Give as much as they will eat. Corn and oats mixed, once a day, and some roots or green food (usually ruta baga or turnip) once a day. Some soils are not adapted to sheep, and on such the flock requires greater care and more feeding with grain. When the lambs come in the winter, it is desirable to keep up the condition of the ewe, but if she is a good nurse this is hardly to be expected.

L

res

It is generally known that I keep only the large New Oxfordshire sheep-that they are great breeders, and good nurses. When these sheep, as is common, have two or three lambs in March, I feed them as well as I know how. Not large quantities of grain, but feed carefully, and yet ungrudgingly-often and of various kinds; but with all care, the ewes before grass grows, will be lighter than in winter. On grass they rapidly recover, and I never lose a ewe and very rarely a lamb. JOHN T. ANDREW. West Cornwall, Ct., April 9,1855.

MR. TUCKER-Please insert in your columns a sketch of a churning apparatus of my invention. It will run as easy, or churn as fast, as any I have ever seen. In the above cut you will perceive that it is of very simple construction, and a man can make one in a day. A, is the mortice that the dasher goes through-B, is the place where the evener is fastened, by means of a bolt; and by moving the evener towards the letter B, the dasher will not move so high-C, is the place where the evener and pitman are joined-F is the pitmanD, is a crank about a foot long-E, is a short crank about 4 inches long, working in a mortice in the center of the post, 1 foot long and 4 inches wide. EDWARD M. FULLER. Sulisbury, Herkimer Co., N. Y.

Working the dasher churn by means of a crank, has been previously effected by placing the crank on two supports proceeding directly upwards from the churn, and sometimes the motion has been multiplied by cogwheels; but the latter causes too much friction. In both instances, a fly wheel has been found important; and it would no doubt be a great advantage in the above described contrivance, lessening the labor by rendering the motion uniform. This contrivance appears to possess an important advantage over other crank-arrangements, by admitting any desired variation in the length of the stroke. EDs.

Founder in Horses.

MR. TUCKER-I send you a recipe for founder in horses, which I have never seen in print. I have used and recommended it for fifteen years, and so far as my

experience goes, it is a sure and speedy remedy:Take a table-spoonful of pulverized alum, pull the horse's tongue out of his mouth as far as possible, and throw the alum down his throat: let go of his tongue, and hold up his head until he swallow. In six hours time, (no matter how bad the founder,) he will be fit for moderate service. I have seen this remedy tested so often with perfect success, that I would not make five dollars difference in a horse foundered (if done recently) and one that was not. E. L. PERHAM. Albany, Oregon Ter.

Agriculture is the appropriate employment of declining years; for it may be pursued to the very end of life. Not so the occupations of professional men, for they will find, when the strength of their days is gone by, that younger and stouter rivals will hasten their descent, as they are travelling the downward slope of hostile rivalry.-Anon.