Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1873-11-29
rrELD AND GARDEN
GATED sv m.B. BArEHAm.
THE DErARrMKsr OF AGRICULTURE

V washington. IL Is cdpaDle OI uUinS
much good. with q very moderate aex-
penditure Of money, If 1t only had the
light kini OF man at ITS head, but
,omeho v It has been from the first, PEE
rulisrly unfortunate in this respect, and
here is probability tnat II majority OF
he people will insist on it, entire abol-
shneIr, ilr n short time, If 1t does not
show more practical and valulble re-
,ults. l.VvaIi6dedslI slIsiiorftine -iDce, to
the very erroneous crop reports of the
and suggested that the
money now expended annually in the
purchase and distribution of seeds,
(such as can be had Of all the seed ner-
shanrs) had better be used for secur-
'ng more and. better crop reports.
Now we have received the annual re-
port q ocmmisslonef Watts, giving q
synopsiS Of the operations of the De-
partment for the year 1873; and we ex-
tract q few items from the report as
upon the topic in hand:
AllddIng % the work of the Depart
ment In gathering crop reports, the
Commissioner -felfcitates himself on the
extent and reliability of the reports,
and expressly states that it is "unpaid
servIce'' on the part of the reporters
This Of itself will be regarded by most
business men as sufficient excuse for
the worthless character of the reports; !;
for none but q cheap style of men, as a
rule, will be found wiIfing TO do suclr
service unpaid, and the character of the
work will correspond with the work
men and their wages.
The account of expenditures of the
Department shows that of the $2O2, ,440
received from Congress the past year,
465 900 was paid for seeds and plants;
and the report Of the distribution of
seeds shows that 200, 900 papers of gar
den seeds (besides farm seeds) were dis
70 members of Congress. 1t. is
easy to see that nine-tenths at least, of
this sssdb6aainsssl IS the vesteso ham-'
bug, 20 far as the legitimate objects of
the Department are concerned; and most
people are aware that the distribution of
seeds remembers of Congress is only an
easy mettod Of purchasing their favor
and their votes when the question OF ap-
preparations comes up. The Commits
eioner hints at an enlargement of his
seed establishment, and asks an extra
appropriation of $4,000 to build rat
proof apartment therefor-as though he
did not understand that no way has yet
been found for making public depart
ments at Washington rat proof. This
will not be done until the rat extermina-
tors of the Farmers Movement take
possession Of the government buildings.
That this may. speedily come to pass, all
Christian tax payers will devoutly pray.
Vide "Monopolies and the People,"
(The substance of the foregoing was
furnished BY us to the Ohio Farmer last
week, but was badly marred by typo
graphical errors. We advise friend
Lawrence to discharge s'proof1reatier
for incompetency.)
PkodREss OF THE ORANGES.
The number of Oranges organized up
to Nov. Sth, was S,O25. OF these, Iowa
has the largest number--1. 1927; Mime
sofa stands next with 1,QO6, then ilfi-
nois, ia; Kansas, e48 and Indiana 552.
Ohio had 190-and by this time, doubtless
over 200.
CREpIT.-The article ino our last weeks
column, entitled :'Farmers and the Bal
lot Box" was from the Prairie Farmer,
one Of the bestsof epr exehangeS.a
HORTICULTURAL MEETINGS.
Ohio State horticultural Society,'s an
nual 4ssyes q q Mansfield, " Deei loetA' e'
Michigan Pathological Society, at Bat
tie Greek, Dec. I'd, Sd and 4th.
Illinois Horticulrhraf Society, at Cham
paign, Dec. 9th to 18th.
FALL AND WINTER FLOWING.
It's great benefit to clayey lands
that are designed for spring planting to
plow late In the fall, so as to invite the
action &c flDse o. much asaspesaih log il
is also claimed that snow brings to the
ground some ammonia from the atmos-
phere, and thus enriches the soil that is
open to Its access. Gardens, especially,
IL the soil is at all heavy, should be
plowed or spaded up in the fall-the later
the betssss before harl4fpeezisg--aaa
there are usually opportunities for doing
such work during the first half of De-
cember.. e~t2 l~7vg <a- - 1-5s. =
A correspondent of the Cincinnati
Gazette gives his opinion thus:
Late In the fall Of 1870. i 1ploweti part
plowed. the rest of the ground. AT
about planting time the whole of the
ground was plowed again and narrowed.
It was then all planted at the same time.
and the fall plowed ground yielded, l
think, fourth more corn to the acre
than the spring plOwing. In lS7I-72, /
tried il again aud the result was about
she same. This spring we just narrowed
the fall plowed ground and furrowed it
out with single shovel plow'and plant
ed It; theu, just before it began to come
up, we ran over 1t with two horse cul-
tivator.- Ifhink We have third more
per acre OH this part than we have on
the rest Of our ground.
HOW TO ENRICH OUR MEADOWS,
This-was tlle topic for discussion at a
recent meeting of the Willoughby Plains
Farmers Club; but it does not appear
from the report that any very definite
answer to the question was ELECTED. 1t
is :to be hoped that after little more
practice, the members will learn to ex-
press their ideas little more clearly
than they appear in this report-for in
stance:
J. Newton-Thought it different here
from what it is east; there we need tO
drag our meadows and sow OH seed in
the spring and help them in that way
some rolled them; thonght our meadows
did not get dragged aud rolled enough
here; thought one load of good manure
on our meadows in the fall, /, worth three
put on in the spring; did not think il
best to plow up meadows so often.
A. Gray-was in favor of top-dressine
meadows; would apply manure in the
fall thought then would be the bes
time; would drag and re-sced instead
Of piowing up 30 Cften.
4. RichardsoH-Had some experience
ia top-dressing;> had put lots of manure