Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1866-12-08
AGRICULTURAL.
FARn. GaRDEN AND HOUSEHOLD.

: harvest on one of the largest and mos
4 widely known farms devoted to th
D growing of garden seeds, situated il
o Bloomsdale, New Jersey. 1t contain
s 800 acres. 1t is June, and the turniI
seed is being gathered, and we quote a
follows:
The harvest, which is seed culture
lasts for many consecutive weeks, hai
! lust commenced. The first important
! crop that ripens is the turnip, which
il now being cut. The work is per
formed by the use of grass hooks on
toothIess sickles; stem after stem is cut,
until the hand is full, when they are
deposited in canvas sheets; as these
are flied, boys stand ready to spread
others; men follow to tie up those
which have been filled; others succeed
driving teams and loading wagons with
ample shelyings, with sheetful piled on
sheetfuI. until the sturdy oxen are re-
auired to test their strength IN draw
ing them to the drying houses. Arrived
there. each sheetful is separately re-
moved bv rope and tackle, and the
contents deposited on the skeleton
scaffoldipg within the building, there
to remain until the seed is suthclently
cured and dry enough to thresh.
These drying houses are buildings OF
uniform character, two stories Ia height
and fifty feet square, constructed so as
to expose their contents to sun and alr,
and each provided with carefully laid
threshing floor, extending through the
building, with penthouse for movable
engine. When the houses are full and
| the hulm in fit state for threshlng, the
engine is started and the work begun
One man, relieved by others from time
to time flor the labor requires activity,
and consequently is exhausting), feeds
the thresher, which, with its armed
teeth, moves with such velocity as to
appesr like solid cylinder. Here
there is no stopping for horses to take
breath and rest their weary limbs
puff, puff. onward the work-steam is
as great triumph in threshing as IN
printing or spinning.
Men and boys are stationed at the
rear or the thresher to remove the straw
and roughly separate The seed from the
shattered hulm-Others again being en-
gagged in thrusting the dried crop from
the scaffolds, and placing it IN a suit
able position for the feeders. When
one drying house has thus been empti-
ed, the engine is removed to another;
the same process is pursued until the
circuit Of the building has been made,
and thus the ceaseless round cease
less at least for a season. is continued
AS soon as the crop in the first house
has been thresbed, the work of winnOw-
ing is commenced, and skilled hands
thus engaged follow on the track of the
engine. As each crop is cleaned and
put in merchantable order, it is placed
in bags of two bushels each, and car
ried to the store honses and graneries,
there to await a requisition from the
city warehouse.
We have just witnessed the process
of saving the crop of turnip seed. And
how much may that reach? is a natural
inquiry. OF all the varieties, including
the ruta baga, about one thousand
pounds would supply the entire Union,
but we are reminded it is in part ex-
ported to far distant lands. And what
is the crop so much like the turnip, but
still green, and apparently of more Wig
orous growth? This is one of varieties
of cabbage, of which several standard
kinds are under cultivation. Another
adjoining is the radish: still another,
beet; and thus we pass from kind TO
kind, until we have exhausted long
catalogue OF sorts.
SOIL AND MANURE FOR HOPS. -Lawe's
experiments with the hop have shown
that to ensure success with this plant,
it is necessary to manure literally with
bulky animal and vegetable manures
During the past summer, in an exami-
nation of the hop gardens in the coun-
ty of Kent, and the manner in which
the crop is cultivated in that noted hop
district, We found wooden rags, shoddy,
skin clippings, and fur waste in extern
sive use in addition to farm yard ma
nure. Mr.. Lawe's remarks that in
farm-yard dung the proportion of min
eral matter, and of organic matter
yielding carbOnic acid and some other
organic compound IN the soil, are com
paratively large; but the amount of
nitrogen or ammonia yielding matter is
small. With this manure there should
therefore be employed wooden rags or
skin clippings, which are rich in am
monia yielding substance, but poor in
mineral matter. Rape cake, he says, is
always an exceeding good manure for
hops, and Peruvian guano may also be
used with advantage, in addition to,
but not as a substitute for the more
bulky manures.
The idea prevails among hop grow
ers in England, that soils made up of
those constituents particularly IA
vorable to the cultivation of fruit, es-
pecially of grapes, are the soils best
adapted to hops, and the superstition
would seem to have some foundation
since the best hop regions in England
are also the best for fruit. Doubtless
| this will be found to hold good to a
considerable extent in America, and ii
the question be canvassed as to the
reason why so great difference exists
in the quality of hops grown in differ
ent parts of the country, the suggestion
referred to may perhaps aid in solution
of the matter. In conversation with the
English hop merchants of London,
| they claim that the American hop is
| far inferior in flavor to those grown at
home. That it has peculiar rankness
in smell easily detected, and which car
ries with it an unpleasant flavor In
brewing-that this had a damaging in
fuence on prices, and they expressed a
hope that means should be taken to
obviate the difficulty. There would then
be a large demand for American hops
of choice quality and at ton prices. Ii
1t be true that the American hep lacks
delicacy of flavor as compared with that
grown abroad, it may be well to inquire
whether it results from the peculiar ma
ture of the soil on which 1t is grown,