I am aware that the natural system, as it has farm-house, first; because what is true of them, will been abused, has met with much disfavor, but be of country residences and park-like grounds, on where easy, flowing lines have been substituted for a large scale, and vice versa. As botany teaches, the rigid, straight and stiff, particularly if accom- the leaf is the type of the tree. panied with proper ornamentation, the change is I subjoin an imaginary plan of the surroundnot unpleasant, it will even be specially agreeable. ings of but too many homes in New England vilAs the proprietors of small places are the most lages, as they should not be, but are. I wish to show troubled to arrange their pleasure grounds consist-particularly, the farmer and mechanic, that they ently with correct ideas of beauty, I shall treat of may have beauty, elegance and comfort, at the same the arrangements befitting the grounds of village cost with stiffness, awkwardness and discomfort. homes and the immediate surroundings of the all. The above wood cut represents a village home-out. h, g, c and j, are paths through the garden stead, hundreds of which, of the same size and and grass, to and from the house and barn; in shape, or slightly differing, are familiar to all. every case it is necessary either to go around a The land itself is half an acre in size, on which long and awkward corner,or cross grass or plowed is a house 40 feet square, with Land woodshed of land to the detriment of all concerned. m, is a proportionate dimensions; there is also a barn, row of half-starved elms, from the woods, or per40x30; at one corner of the barn, o, is a large haps of overgrown and neglected apple trees-afpile of manure exposed to the washing and beat- fording more suckers and canker worms than aping of wind and rain; this manure-pile is sur- ples. s, represents the tillage by dotted lines. 7, rounded by the hog-pen, whose squealing and grass by straight lines. In the grass at the west of noisome inhabitants are plainly perceivable by the house are perhaps two large elms or other fine trees, which have most likely been disfigured by The buildings are all more or less painted; pro- a barbarous course of scraping with the fruit tree bably white in front, and bright staring red on scraper, and a coat of whitewash. At n, n, we the back and sides; in some places there are have apple or other fruit trees, all of which indiblinds, but in more none, and probably the barn cate the absence of a true horticultural skill, and doors are swinging in the wind. Every path is in too many cases, of even the wish for anything straight, and if it is inconvenient to go around better. On the west side is a long picket fence, the corners, another path is worn across the grass. out of which many slats have been lost, thus acf, is the road up to the barn; this road is shut commodating the neighbors or the proprietor's from the main street, by either a pair of bars, or pigs and hens in their friendly visits. Very likea three-barred gate, generally halting on one ly, in homesteads of the better order, the front hinge. k, is the path to the front door, which al- will be protected by a light, white paling, in perso is closed by a gate, commonly composed of pick- fect repair, and finished at an expense of needets, one or more of which are askew, or broken less carpenter work, sufficient to HEMLOCK FOR HEDGES. fence?" other fences in order. Against the fence on the W. N. and E., there will be, probably, a row of H., Forestville, Ct.-"Is hemlock of any value moss covered currant or gooseberry bushes, or for hedges, either for ornament or for making perhaps raspberries. On either side of the front walk, k, are two borders, r, r, for flowers, which in some cases will have a few stunted roses and Hemlock makes a highly ornamental hedge, pinks, and perhaps a few roots of phlox or other when well kept and trimmed. We have never perenials. known it used as a fence, and doubt whether it would offer a sufficient resistance against cattle. and the whole tilled surface will be more or less The border, p, is filled with some berry fruit, covered with fruits, vegetables, and most of all, In transplanting, young and thrifty plants should be used, and their roots, after having been care weeds. I do not mean to say that this is the only ar- fully taken up, should not be exposed for a moment rangement that would be seen in such a place, for to the sun and wind. From the ground, set them many would evince care and neatness, but I doubt at once into wagons or boxes, and cover the roots not, many of my readers will have recognized with light earth, or damp straw or hay, where the very place I have been describing, before get ting thus far. So much for the unimproved; the they should remain until the ground is ready to next time, I will describe the same place altered receive them. by the hand of care and taste. LARGE EGGS. I have selected a square half-acre from the gen- JAMES A. BARRETT, Concord, Ms.-"The two eral habit of cutting up village lands into rectan- eggs enclosed weigh of a pound each. These, gular shapes, and of course my description and strictures apply equally well to other homesteads and one more, weighing three ounces, were laid by of any size and shape, which are managed in the one of my Shanghai hens in four days. I have same careless and short-sighted manner. R. MORRIS COPELAND. cts. per EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. PRICES OF CROPS IN OHIO. ASHES HOLD-FAST IN CATTLE. found a number since supposed to have been laid by the same hen, that weighed about three ounces.” R. W. AMES, Roxbury, Mass., informs us that he succeeded in raising, last year, 5170 grains of good sound corn from a single kernel planted! GUANO. Corn is selling at this time and place at 40 cts -wheat at $1,25―rye 50 cts.—clover seed, $4,75 a bushel-oats 25 cts.-timothy seed, $2,00-flax J. H. A., Fairhaven, Mass.-Guano is selling seed, 80 cts.-potatoes 50 cts.-apples, green, 50 now at $55,00 a ton-$2,75 per hundred pounds. bushel-hogs, gross, $2,50 per hundred. There is no necessity for mixing guano with sand HIRAM O. MINICH. or loam, when you are to sow it broadcast, so far Bucyrus, Crawford Co., Ohio, March 7, 1854. as the crop is concerned; but it is more comfortable sowing it. Apply the manure to your plain NEW SUBSCRIBER, Derby, Vt.-The hold-fast, on lands, by all means, in preference to the guano, cattle, is supposed to be occasioned by the old teeth if you can obtain an ox-cart load for fifty cents, being retained when the new ones are starting, as you suggest. With manure at that price you which causes the new teeth to grow out of the side can raise any crop you please, within reasonable of the jaw. Make an examination, and see if limits. something is not wrong with the teeth. Bathe the parts externally with arnica water. Ashes spread broadcast on grass lands will prove highly beneficial. Apply them to corn around the hill at the first or second hoeing; scatter them about your apple trees-they are valuable on any crop. HOW TO APPLY GUANO. MEADOW MUD. DEAR FARMER-Please inform me through meadow mud for a manure for light upland loam. your next number, the best way of preparing A SUBSCRIBER. CONCORD GRAPE-SWEET POTATO. See Monthly Farmer, vol. 5, pages 61, 340, 341. Meadow mud that has been dug out and exposed through the winter would be a good fertilizer, and one which all crops require. The "way B. L. Gilford.-For corn, spread 300 pounds to of preparing" is simply to make the whole fine, and the acre and harrow in, after pulverising and mix-mingle intimately by turning the heap over. ing with any moist loam; or, if you use other manure, apply a handfull of the mixture to the N. C., Eden, Me.-We shall give a full account hill before dropping the corn. For grain crops, of the "Concord Grape " in another column, broadcast and harrow under. For grass, broadstating price and where it may be purchased. cast, and use in a rainy day, early in April. It The sweet potato is raised in this State and in the is more pleasant to use it when mixed with loam southwest part of New Hampshire. The slips may be obtained in the market at Boston, or you JESSE EATON, Meredith Village.-The grass you may sprout the potato in a hot-bed yourself. The sent is probably the perennial rye grass, though slips should be set about the first of June, same as we had not enough of it for examination to feel you transplant cabbage plants. They are very quite sure about it. PERENNIAL RYE GRASS. hardy. MURIATE OF LIME. For the New England Farmer. BY HENRY F. FRENCH. "Is not Mr. Gould's advertisement of muriate CITY RAILROADS---A MODEL STABLE. of lime, an error, which recommends 300 barrels to the acre? Óne would think that a pretty strong amount, and if not very cheap, rather expensive as a dressing Chester, Conn., Feb. 7, 1854. G. G. G. NITRATE OF SODA-BURDEN GRASS. To J. W. WEBSTER, North Fairhaven, Mass. The price of "Burden grass," per bushel, is $1,50-there is very little in market. After making inquiries at several places, where similar articles are sold, we could find no "nitrate of soda," at any price. A HALF SUFFOLK PIG. SAMUEL ALDEN, of Lyme, N. H., killed a pig eight months and twenty-two days old which weighed when dressed (exclusive of rough lard) 401 pounds! Orfordville, 1854. OLD COLONY SWEET CORN. R. C. B. One would hardly expect to find in the midst of a great city, much that would be of value to the practical farmer, but during a day lately passed in New York, I chanced to ascertain some facts, which seem worth placing on the record. By invitation of JAMES S. LIBBY, President of the "Sixth Avenue Railroad Company," which runs from Barclay Street, just in the rear of the Astor House, to Forty-fourth Street, a distance of three and a half miles, I passed over the road and visited the stables of the company, where are kept the four hundred horses, which draw the cars, in which are conveyed annually, for greater or less distances, five and a half millions of passengers. City railroads are much discussed, now, both in Boston and elsewhere, and probably some statistical information on the subject may not be uninteresting. Again, the exact amount of food reR. O. STODDARD, Westfield, Vt.—"I planted this quired for each animal, and the amount of labor kind of corn last year on the 16th of May; it was he can endure, ought to be known to every farmer, in silk the first of August. Gathered some for but unfortunately, the man who cuts his own hay, the table on the 4th of Sept.-the stalks were guesses at the quantity, and lets the boys feed it large and some of them ten feet high, many of the out, without weight or measure, is not in the preears being 6 feet from the ground. There being cise position to inform us of the expense of supno frost until the last days of Sept., it came to ma- porting his live stock, and on the farm, labor is turity. As an experiment, I pulled the suckers too irregular to furnish much information as to from two rows, and I thought the ears were bet- the capacity of animals for work. ter and earlier for it, notwithstanding some say 'don't sucker your corn. BEST SEED SOWER. E. S. ALLEN, Jacksonville, Vt.-"You will confer a favor on a subscriber, and others, by informing them through your very valuable paper, which is the best Seed Sower, now used for sowing carrots." The human force of the company referred to. consists of sixty drivers, sixty conductors, one man for each sixteen horses at the stable, eight blacksmiths who do the shoeing for the whole, besides harness makers and painters and a few oth ers. The stable is of brick, two hundred feet square, and two stories high, with an attic. The two stoThe best Seed Sower with which we are ac-ries are occupied by the horses, which are led up quainted is one represented in Messrs. Ruggles, to the second story, over an inclined plane. The Nourse, Mason & Co.'s Catalogue, and called attic is occupied as a hay and grain room, and "Seed Sower No. 2." The brush and cylinder of one old horse, which seemed nearly blind, probaNo. 2, which distributes the seed, go by gradua- bly because, like the fish in the Mammoth Cave, ted rows of iron cogs or gearings, which operate there was nothing to see in that position. This insimply and uniformly, are durable, not likely to dividual amused himself, and served his race, by get out of order, and by which the speed of the dropping may be increased or lessened, and large or working a horse power hay-cutter, with which, in small seeds sown, in all their varieties, at any the wants of his four hundred brethren in the lower seven hours daily application, he is able to supply desirable distances, in hills or drills. There is a regions. The philanthropists of the great city, larger kind for use by horse power. who labor so zealously for their fellows, and seem E. INGHAM, Lebanon, N. H.-See vol. 4, page to make so little progress, I think may gain cour108, Monthly Farmer, for an excellent article on age, by contemplating the example of this patient the buckthorn. There is no difficulty, whatever, quadruped. Although constantly striving forward, in cultivating it. Buckwheat or clover may be he has never advanced a single inch, but he is acturned in green, with great advantage, on the complishing a vast deal of good by his efforts in light lands you speak ofa IMPROVED POUDRETTE.-This article is advertised in our columns. We know nothing about it, never having used it. It may be easily tested by the purchase of a barrel or two for trial. the right direction. Water is brought by an aqueduct into the attic, as well as the other stories,and all the food is prepared by mixing the chopped hay with corn meal, and wetting it in one large box. It is then dropped, through wooden conduc Ladies' Department. BREAD-MAKING. H. F. F. tors, to the lower floors, and distributed to the The only waste noticed about the establishment, various stalls. Every part of the establishment is in the management of the manure, a great part was perfectly clean, and kept in thorough order. of which passes off in liquid form into the river, Mr. WILLIAM EBBITT, the superintendent, who while the remainder is sold for $1000 a year, not knows, by the way, as much about horses,as any more than one-third of what should be received, man in New York, has his various troops under as according to the number of horses. good discipline as a military academy. A fine of As a model city railroad, with the best Presione dollar is imposed upon every ostler who leaves dent and Superintendent that can be produced, a bucket or shovel in sight, when not in use, and I the former by the way a New Hampshire man, I think more dirt may often be found in one stall in think this company is worthy a more particular a farmer's barn, than could be scraped together notice than a very hasty visit enables me to give. from the whole establishment. But five horses were, at the time of my visit, disabled from work, of the whole number, and only seventeen have died in two years past. Their average allowance of food is one hundred pounds, or two bushels of meal per week, and about eight pounds of hay per We shall not presume to instruct our fair readday, for cach horse, and yet they are all kept in ers in the art of bread-making. The process, the finest condition. A car, drawn by two horses, however, involves some scientific principles, which and with seats for twenty-eight persons, leaves the we propose to explain, in continuation of our sestable every two and a half minutes through the ries of familiar remarks on chemistry. Wheat day. The time allowed down is thirty-eight min- flour contains two principal ingredients, gluten utes, and up forty minutes, and notwithstanding and starch, besides a small per cent (4-100 to the difference in the number of passengers who 8-100) of sugar. The outside of the kernel of wheat contains a larger proportion of gluten than the stop the car to get in or out, at any point on the finer flour. These two parts of the flour may be route, the time of running seldom varies one min- separated easily by enclosing a little flour made ute. Each team runs three times down and back, daily, making for every horse twenty-one miles a day, at once without unharnessing. Forty cars are employed, costing about $850 each; and Mr. EBBITT informed me that the cost of the horses varied from eighty-five to a hundred and forty dollars, each. Occasionally, by mistake they purchase one which proves to be worth four or five times as much, and when that fact appears, the horse is fitted for the market and sold for a higher sphere of action. into a stiff paste, in a linen bag, and kneading it in a basin of water, until the water that comes through is no longer white. The starch by this Process escapes from the bag, and the gluten, a tough, adhering mass, remains within. Many ladies have noticed the different kinds of flour, in the ease with which it is kneaded. The tougher kinds contain the most gluten. The bakers prefer the latter sort, because it admits of more raising. If flour were simply mixed up with water, and indigestible and unpalatable bread, hardly worthy baked without raising, it would make a very close, of the name. To become soft, light and palatable, Mr. EBBITT showed me one specimen of the ge- the dough must be raised. This is effected, ordinus horse which is worthy of a place in Barnum's narily, by one of two common processes. In makmuseum. It is a mare of full size, without a hair ing what is generally known as raised bread,to cover her nakedness, not even by way of mane, improperly so distinguished, because all bread is raised either before baking or in the process,―the tail or eyelashes. She is of a mouse color, fat and dough is made up with water only, it may be, well formed, and at a little distance would pass for and a small portion of yeast, which is to act as a a sleek-haired animal, were it not for her perfectly ferment. In the making of cream-of-tartar or ridiculous looking tail, which in grace and propor- sour-milk bread, the means of raising it are differtions, resembles that of a cleanly dressed porker. In the first, the fermentation of the yeast or leaven ent and act in a very different way, chemically. They say she "was ever thus since childhood's is extended to the mass of fresh dough. The dehour," and has had two colts of the same style of composing gluten acts upon the sugar and resolves beauty. It strikes me that a few bottles of Bogle's it into alcohol and carbonic acid gas. This gas, Hyperion Fluid might be used on her with a fair in the form of little air bubbles, is disseminated opportunity to test its merits. through the loaf, and expands or raises it, being The forty cars run each eleven trips a day, mak- prevented from escaping by the glutinous nature of the dough. The alcohol formed by the fering in all something more than three thousand mentation is expelled from the dough by the heat miles of travel. of the oven. It has been collected sometimes, in The cost of constructing this route with a double large bakeries, but hardly pays for the trouble. track, and of equipping it with cars, horses and The dough sometimes becomes sour before baking, harnesses, together with the real estate, was somein consequence of a second fermentation-the thing more than seven hundred thousand dollars, vinegar, on the absorption of oxygen from the air. acetous-by which the alcohol is converted into and the stock has thus far paid ten per cent. div- It then becomes necessary to introduce into the idends annually. dough some alkaline substance, as soda or salera tus, which unites with and neutralizes the acid, and makes the dough sweet again. ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT. RATES. For one square 15 lines, one insertion... ..$1,00 ....50 The above rates will be charged for all advertisements, Walnut Grove Nursery. In the second kind of bread, named above, the A limited number of advertisements of an appropriate carbonate acid to raise it is obtained from the car- character will be inserted in the monthly Farmer at the following bonate of soda, or of potassa, (saleratus)-by mixing with it in the flour some acid, as sour milk, cream of tartar, or cider or vinegar or hydrochloric acid-either of which, by its stronger whether longer or shorter. affinity for the alkaline base-the soda or potassa -unites with it and liberates the carbonic acid. We see that by this mode of raising the bread, the sugar of the wheat is retained in it; whereas by the other process it is converted into alchohol and carbonic acid. We see also that the use of soda or saleratus is very different in the two kinds of bread-making. In the first, the alkaline base is required to neutralize the acetic acid,-in the second, the carbonic acid is needed to raise the bread. In each case a neutral substance is left in the bread; in the first, an acetate of soda-in the second, a base of soda or potassa, united with whatever acid is used. Bread when baked is neither starch nor gluten. The globules of starch which remain unbroken in the flour, swell and burst under the influence of the moisture and heat, and with the gluten unite chemically with the water of the dough and form bread. No separation of the starch and gluten can be effected after baking. Even a portion of water chemically united with the bread can not be separated from it by evaporation. The hardest and driest bread has water combined with the flour. NEWTON CENTRE, MASS. The subscribers have on hand as usual a large stock of Fruit and other Trees, which they are prepared to sell at very reasonable rates. Among others, Apple, Pear, Cherry, Plum, Peach, Grape Vines, Raspberries, Blackberries, &c. &c. Also, Ornamental Trees, Shrubs, Roses, Herbace ous Roots, Creepers, &c. &c. A splendid lot of Sugar Maple, 8 to 10 feet high, $30 per hun. dred." 6000 Apple stocks, $10 per thousand. 5000 Buckthorn, 2 to 3 years, $15 to $20 per thousand. Fine lot Red Dutch Currants, $6 per thousand. Other things too numerous to mention. All orders will be prompt- Newton Centre, March 18, 1854. R. M. COPELAND, Landscape and Ornamental Gardener, WIL TILL furnish plans of Cemeteries, Public Squares, Pleasure Grounds, Gardens and Farms, with directions for their layGluten is the most nutritious part of the flour.ing out and improvement, also for the construction of every species of buildings connected with Horticulture or Agriculture, The bran, therefore, should not be excluded from Barns, Green-Houses, Conservatories, Rustic Arbors, &c., the bread, if we have regard to its highest nutri-whether for use or ornament. tive qualities. He will furnish lists of the most approved and desirable ornamental and useful Trees, Shrubs, and Flowers; also, plang and estimates for every species of underdraining, and will con for and superintend the removal of trees of every size un Refers to Hon. M. P. WILDER, Dorchester. แ S. H. WALLEY, Roxbury. SAMUEL WALKER, Roxbury. J. W. EDMANDS, Newton Centre. Prof. H. W. LONGFELLOW, Cambridge. The crust of bread, when moistened and re-tact turned to the oven, becomes smooth and shining.der fifty feet, at all seasons of the year. A portion of the starch, in the process of baking, is converted into gum. This gum on being moistened spreads over the surface of the bread produe-| ing the smooth surface, and also giving the crust a taste which the bread does not have. Corn bread has a peculiar aromatic flavor, owing to an oil which is disseminated through the meal. The No. 3 Dudley Block, Roxbury. inferiority of meal long ground, to that which is fresh, is due to the change which exposure to the air has made in these oily particles.-Portland Eclectic. SOUTH DOWN SHEEP.-Can you or some of your numerous subscribers inform me through the pages of the Cultiuator, where I can get the full blooded South Down Sheep, and what they will cost a pair?-S. D. Jefferson Co., Ind. South Down Sheep can be procured of L. G. MORRIS, Fordham, Westchester county, N. Y.; Col. J. M. SHERWOOD, Auburn N. Y.; Z. B. WAKEMAN, Little Falls, N. Y.; and several other breeders in this State. The prices vary from $20 to $100 or more per pair, according to quality.Country Gent. CONNECTICUT STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.Officers for 1854. SAMUEL T. HUNTINGTON, Hartford, President. JOHN A. PORTER, New Haven, Recording Secretary and Treasurer. J. W. PROCTOR, Danvers. March 25, 1854. eow 5t*2 To Farmers. THE subscriber is now prepared to receive orders for the Im proved Poudrette. It has been manufactured under the advice of some of the best agricultural chemists in the Country, and is now commended to the public as the most certain and cheap Fertilizer that can be obtained, acting favorably on all crops, and on all soils. Six different articles are used in its composition, which combined make it a perfect manure for every crop raised and prospective high prices of this indispensable crop, ought to in New England. It is finely adapted to corn, and the present induce all farmers to increase the quantity planted, which they can do profitably by using the Improved Poudrette. Prof. Mapes says of it, "no farmer using it once, will be willing ever to dispense with it." I raised corn with it the past season bbl., cash. It can be obtained of Messrs. PARKER & WHITE, at a cost of less than 40 cts. bushel. Price in Providence $1,50 59 & 63 Blackstone Street, Boston. T. B. HALLIDAY, Feb. 25, 1854. The proprietors offer for sale an extensive assort- |
