A tolerably good superphosphate may also be made with less labor, by placing all the bone dust at once in a heap on a wooden floor, adding the proper quantity of water, and turning over the heap till all the dust is moistened, and then apply the sulphuric acid in small quantities, repeatedly shoveling over the heap, and adding the acid till the proper proportion is used. The longer the superphosphate is allowed to remain in the heap the better.

Superphosphate so made wilf be too moist for transportation, and cannot be sown to advantage without admixture with some absorbent substance. In England, burnt clay, refuse charcoal dust, coal ashes, dried peat, or even sawdust, is used for this purpose. Whatever is used, be very careful that it does not contain an alkali, or alkaline earth, as this would materially injure the mixture. Unleached wood ashes and lime, must on no account be employed for this purpose. They would neutralize the acid, and re-convert the soluble superphosphate into the insoluble phosphate, and thus undo what had been done at considerable expense. We hope yet to see the day when a good superphosphate of lime can be purchased in all our cities at a reasonable price, when a liquid manure drill shall be considered a necessary in every town, and when superphosphate shall be applied in a liquid state to several aeres of root crops on every farm.

A Vermont Corn Crop.

The following statement, furnished to the Committee on Farm Crops, at the late winter meeting of the Vermont State Ag. Society, and on which the first prize for Indian corn was awarded to Mr. COLBURNE, has been sent to us for publication:

GENTLEMEN-I present you the proof of the quantity of corn grown upon one acre the past season, viz. 113 bushels, weighing 59 lbs. per bushel, and cobs, 124 lbs. I also present you a sample of the eorn, a variety of the 8, 10 and 12 rowed mixed, a deep kernel and small cob, now designated as the Skitchawang

corn.

The soil on which it grew is alluvial, near the Connecticut river; was broken up in 1852, and sowed with oats. In 1853, manured with hog-yard and compost, spread broadcast, 50 ox cart loads to the acre: plowed 10 inches deep, and planted with corn; the result, 105 bushels to the acre. This was a field of 7 acres, for which I received your first premium last year.

Three acres of this field were last spring again manured with coarse barn-yard and stable manure, about 40 loads to the acre, spread as the year previous, and plowed 12 inches deep, thoroughly harrowed, planted 24th May, seed dry, hoed well three times, ashes and plaster after the first hoeing, a handful to each hill; plaster alone after the second hoeing, a table spoonful to each hill; rows 3 feet, hills 24 feet apart; harvested

early in October. The corn was all sound and well filled out, not injured in the least by the severe and protracted drouth, which is attributed in part to the nature of the soil, but more to the deep plowing. That part of this 3 aere field which I present for a premium, is an acre on one side which received the stable ma

nure, the yield on this acre being full one-fourth greater than on the other two acres which received the coarse manure from sheep yards.

Manure from stables is stronger, and acts quicker than sheep manure, but the latter seems to hold in the soil, and shows its effects in after crops, quite equal to cattle manure, and better than horse manure, though none is so good as a hog-yard compost. J. W. COLBURNE Springfield, Jan. 10, 1855

First Year's Experience in Farming-No. II.

RESTORATION OF OLD MEADOWs.-Finding that my meadows had been left without manure for many years, regularly mowed, and afterwards thrown open to the adjoining pasture lands, and that they had yielded but scanty erops of hay, I looked anxiously for some sure mode of restoring them to fertility. Not being able to subject, in any other way, the books which treated of collect the personal experience of farmers upon this the modes of restoring old meadows, were my resort. Here I found many useful suggestions. The best mode of treating them and the one which recommended itself as the most sure and permanently successful, was plowing up, tilling, manuring and re-seeding. But thirty acres of my farm were already under plow, and it would greatly add to the labor of conducting the farm and diminish my most needed hay crop, for a number of years, if this course were adopted. I could not do this.

If affairs had come to this condition under my own management, it would have resulted from a series of blunders I should prefer to remain unknown. For a good farmer will so conduct his business, as to be able whenever necessary, to plow up portions of his meadows and still retain the desired crops, without much change in character or quantity. But like many other troubles encountered during the year, I attribute these to my predecessors.

TOP-DRESSING.-Several writers I consulted, recommended top-dressing. It seemed to be a question not entirely settled, whether this dressing should be applied in the spring or fall. It was admitted that many instances of success in applying manure to meadows in the fall had been known, but it was strenuously urged that a very large per-centage of the fertilizing qualities of the manure would escape in the atmosphere and be lost to the soil, if spread over the land in the fall, and left exposed to the winds and rains of winter. My judgment yielded assent to the arguments in favor of spring dressing, and I adopted it.

HOW APPLIED. Having purchased of my nearest neighbor about 100 loads of well-rotted manure, which had accumulated by his cow stable during the two preceding years, (which he said he did not need, as his

Manuring the Pear.

MESSRS. EDITORS-We see it stated on all hands, by Horticulturists, that Pears require "high cultivation." We have here a warm dry loam, with coarse gravel subsoil. Can you not in a few words give us the definition of this term, in its application to our soil? and oblige. A SUBCRIBER. Oxford, Mass. Dec.

There is very little soil in any of the eastern states that does not need manuring for the successful cultivaof the pear. The size of the fruit depends much upon it, but the flavor still more. Some of the finest pears in existence are nearly worthless with a poor soil and poor cultivation.

Farm-yard manure forms the basis of the best fertilizers. We have found nothing better than a compost made by depositing successively thin layers of old-pasture turf (or from fence corners,) and stable manure in about equal proportions, with, say one twentieth of leached ashes; ground bones, night-soil, charcoal dust, lime, street sweepings, &c. when easily procured, may be added with advantage. It should lie at least several weeks, and months would be better. The soil should be trenched, or plowed deep, and the compost mixed thoroughly through it. Liquid manure if strong enough, exerts a quick and powerful effect, possessing, as it does, three advantages over solid manure, namely, irrigating as well as manuring, passing at once into contact with the roots, and becoming equally and intimately diffused through the soil, more perfectly than any solid can be intermixed. If too strong, or too frequently or abundantly applied, it will kill trees.

It should be always borne in mind, that thorough cultivation, for the complete destruction of grass and weeds and for keeping the soil loose and mellow, is absolutely essential, and that without it, manure is of little comparative value.

Fruit Crop in Michigan.

With the exception of some injury by the apple worm, and to the plum by the curculio, this can be reported as splendid-not to be surpassed if equalled by any country; of all varieties, from the luscious strawberry, to the delicious peach and pear and health-imparting apple. Large quantities of the latter fruit have been shipped the past season, mostly to the west, yielding to the farmer as great a sum, and a much larger profit, than the surplus wheat crop.

While speaking of fruit, I wish to enter my protest against the use of quince stocks for the pear, for extensive cultivation. They are a decided failure in this region; three-fourths of them dying out the first or second year, and hardly any remaining healthy unless taking root above the insertion of the graft. The pear root is decidedly preferable, leaving the branches as near the ground as possible with continued high cultivation, and judicious pruning, and thinning of the fruit when over-loaded. Trees often bear themselves to death, other varieties as well as the pear. B. J. HARVEY. Salmagundi, Lenawee Co., Michigan.

There are several reasons why pear trees on quince stocks do not succeed. A common one is deficient cultivation, or no cultivation at all; for the short and thickly set roots must be abundantly supplied with enriching materials, as they do not, like other roots, go far in search of nourishment. Another reason is the

selection of wrong varieties; many of which will flou rish for a short time and then perish, succeeding best while young and in the rich soil of the nursery, but immediately declining when removed to the neglected orchard. A third reason is the use of the wrong kind of quince for stock; a very few varieties will do well on almost any sort; but most varieties, even among those well adapted to dwarfing, will sooon fail when not worked on the best French stocks. How far these influences may have operated in producing the losses spoken of by our correspondent, we can only know by further investigation, but it is hardly probable that 'three-fourths," would "die out the first or second

year," without their share in the unfavorable infiuences, when we remember that in western New-York, with a climate so similar to that of Michigan, immense numbers are now in successful cultivation, without a loss, when properly managed, of one in a thousand, except where the epidemic blight strikes them, and to which pears on their own stocks are equally liable.

Setting Out Large Trees.

There is a foolish eagerness with many persons, to set out very large fruit trees, with an expectation that they will be the soonest to bear. We know a very enterprising planter, who was determined to have his grounds not only planted at once, but to have large trees without waiting for them to grow. At great expense, he procured every tree he could find of large size and removed it at once to his grounds. Nurserymen had nothing large enough for him. Two or three years afterwards, observing him buying trees of moderate or small size, we asked him the meaning of his conduct. "Oh, I have had enough of big trees!" This was all he said, but it explained all. We observe in the last number of the New England Farmer, a statement to the point, from a correspondent. He says that five years ago he set out over a hundred apple "Part of my trees were large, and a part small. The smallest have done the best; indeed, the largest tree in the orchard now, was one of the smallest when planted."

trees.

New Summer Apple.

H. STEARNS, of Felchville, Vt., sends us the following description of a summer apple, which has long been cultivated in Vermont, but not described in any standard pomological work. Perhaps this notice may lead to the discovery of its true name, if already known, or else become the means of introducing it for further trial among cultivators.

"It was originally called the Summer Harvey ; and trees have been sold by some nurserymen as the Early Harvest. I am not certain but this is identical with the "Primate" of Thorp, Smith & Hanchett of Syracuse. The tree in question is of straggling, yet rapid growth, of dwarfish habit, comes very early into bearing, and is a prodigious bearer. Fruit of the largest size, first-rate for cooking or eating, greenish yellow when ripe, continuing green around the stem, of a high tart flavor, ripening from the middle of July to the middle of September. The best early market fruit in Vermont.

"Now if any one sends from Vermont to New-York or Massachusetts for Early Harvest trees, expecting to get the variety described above, he will be disappointed, as the Early Harvest of those nurseries is what is here called the Yellow Harvest, a fruit scarcely worth cultivating in this region."

The Black Gum on Peach Trees. Last year I noticed a disease which had shown itself among the peach trees in this vicinity, and which was noticed in the March number of the CULTIVATOR. The fruit last year, wherever the trees were much affected, was entirely destroyed, while others bore but two or three here and there. At the present time the bark of some of the trees looks as if scathed by fire, and last year the trunk, (from the many exudations of the saps,) presented during the warm wet days of spring, an ulcerated character. In some respects the disease resembles the black knots, which often cover the damson plum tree, and there are grounds for believing it to be analogous, but whether caused by the same insects remains to be shown.

Some years ago, the Morello cherry became in all this region of country affected by the black knots, and, wherever it was not watched, covered the trees, and soon left them leafless and disgusting objects. If the disease can diffuse itself from the plum to the cherry tree, why may.it not also to the peach? As a general rule, it is true, that each species of trees have insects that feed on them, peculiar to the species; but there are exceptions to general rules, and we find the common caterpillar feeding on the leaves of the apple, pear, and cherry.

It is yet a disputed question, whether the knots on the damson plum are caused by an insect; for although the curculio eggs have been found in the knots, it is under such circumstances as would not lead us to infer, that the excrescences are its work. The aspect of the interior of the knots look as if made by insects, and these may be so minute, as to escape detection by the naked eye or a common microscope. In all these fruit trees the foliage of the sap appears to be arrested by the compression of the fibers of the wood.

I have noticed that a number of gardens west of mine, have a great many plum and Morello cherry trees completely covered with the black knots; and the prevailing wind is a north wester. The peach trees, east and south of these gardens, as far as I have observed, with a few exceptions, exhibit the disease of the black gum; while those north and west are sound, and bore last year good crops. Hence, I would argue, that

the insects are borne on the wind from tree to tree. In my own garden, I mentioned last year that some trees were diseased more than others, which I attributed to their bearing early or late fruit; but which I now think, is owing to their location with respect to the wind. I should mention the fact, that I have green and yellow fruited plum trees in the same garden, which exhibit no appearance of the knots; and an individual told me this day, that he had plum trees covered with the knots in his garden, intermixed with peach trees, and yet his peach trees were sound. I do not at present see how to reconcile these facts, but further experience may show whether or not, the disease mentioned is the same with that of the purple plum. I have tried ashes, lime, and washing the trunks with sulphate of iron with some apparent benefit, but without any radical cure. H. Carlisle, Pa., Jan. 6, 1855. |

Keeping Poultry in Large Numbers. LUTHER TUCKER, Esq.-In the Co. Gent. of 25th inst., D. H. R. of Hartford, Ct., wants to know how to build a chicken house for "about 1000 fowls." If my poor opinion is worth anything, he will not build it at all. Fowls, in any large number, will not thrive, unless they have a wide range. They are, partially, a grazing animal. When the ground is bare of snow in winter, they pick the grass if they can get it, and are fond of green vegetables of any kind. In summer, they pick and eat grass every day. They are great scavengers after slugs, insects, and all kinds of flesh. They are better, also, for having some flesh food in winter; and abundant air, fresh and pure, they must have, always. Although I have seen it tried, I never knew a large collection of several hundred fowls, succeed in a confined place.

A few years ago some enterprising man from the country came near town, and enclosed an acre or two of ground with a high picket fence, and put up a building, at an expense of near or quite a thousand dollars, intending to supply eggs for the Buffalo market. He had his barn well done off with any quantity of roosts, nesting places, and other conveniences. He started his concern with seven or eight hundred chickens, and for a few weeks, crowing, cockfighting, laying and cackling went on to his heart's content. He had food of all kinds for them, and great anticipations were indulged of fortune-making in his chicken enterprize. But, three or four winter months told the story. The fowls got diseased-the hens first eat the feathers off the roosters or what were left of them after they had fought themselves almost bare, and then the hens unfleeced, in the same way, each other. They stopped laying, were tormented with lice, got the "roup," went moping about the place, and died off like a pestilence; and by spring, but a few miserable, sickly things were left, with scarce life enough in them to crow up the morning!

The difficulty was not in want or food, nor care. But, from the necessity of the case, they were crowded in their roosts; they were disturbed by each other in their nests, and had not room enough any where, even with the outside range of an acre of land. The truth is, that to flourish, hens must have their liberty, when kept in large numbers. They want to range the fields by day, and not be crowded at night. They want a variety of food, and to help themselves to it. They need excrcise, pure air, and enough of both. I knew one man, or rather the man's wife, in the Scioto Valley in Ohio, who kept five or six hundred fowls-that is, she told me she had that many-and I don't doubt it, for the whole territory, for acres about the farm, was speckled with them by day, and the trees, and the corncribs, and the barns, and the sheds were filled with them at night. They had a great big farm of a thousand acres, or more, and full corn cribs for many rods in length, where the hens went at pleasure, and they made nests under the trees, and among the bushes, and just where they had a mind to: and they sat on their all about the buildings, and in the back kitchen, and eggs, and hatched out their chickens at will-a self sustaining poultry establishment, in fact. This plan worked; but as to the profit of it, I doubt whether the old lady could give any intelligible account in the mat

ter.

No; I believe the only way to make poultry profitable, is to keep them in the "old way." Proportion the number to the ground and buildings you have. Give them liberty to run at large for a portion of each day in warm weather, with comfortable quarters in winter, and pure air, always. I have known sundry other enterprizes, like the Buffalo one I mention, tried; but I never knew one permanently successful. They were all in turn abandoned. Yours truly, L. F. A. Black Rock, Jan. 2, 1855

Prize Cow Bloom, Imported by L. G. Morris, Esq.

"Bloom," whose portrait we give above, was the winner of the 1st Prize in the imported class, at the N. Y. State Ag. Show, held at Hamilton Square, New-York, in Oct., 1854. She is the property of L. G. MORRIS, Esq., of Mount Fordham, Westchester "Bloom," Red roan, calved January, 1850; bred by Mr. Fowle of North Allerton. Sire, Sir Leonard, (10,827.) Dam, Elvira by Eolus, (3733.)-G. d. Golden Pippin by Belvidere 2d, (3126.)-Gr. g. d. by Alive'O, (2995.)-Gr. g. g. d. by Eclipse, (236.)-Gr. g. g. g. d. by Charge's Grey Bull, (872)-Gr. g. g. g. g. d. by the Paddock Bull, (477.)-Gr. g. g. g. g. g. d. by Browne's Red Bull, (97.) Co. N. Y., by whom she was selected, and imported in 1852.

A Vermont correspondent, speaking of the most profitable apples for that state, makes the following remarks:

"The Baldwin, Roxbury, Russet and R. I. Greening are decidedly the best apples that can be raised in New England. From what experience I have had in fruit growing, the reply the man made when his advice was asked what varieties he should select, was not so very absurd after all. Says he, "If I were going to set out one thousand trees, I should choose nine hundred and ninety nine Baldwins, and I should not be particular about the rest." Nevertheless, after getting these useful kinds, we must have a few fancy trees."

Scratches.