The Portland daily press., 1874-06-29
TERMS $500 PER ANNUM IN ADVANCE.

y
spring, they should be taken up from the
bins or heaps and kept in boxes or barrels.
Ii you have few barrels saved out for family
use, instead OF picking them over and spread
log them every few weeks, put them into
enough barrels so that you can easily turn
them from one to another Have one extra
barrel, and once a week, turn them all out
from ole barrel to another. This keeps
them moving so often that the sprouts can
not grow enough TO do much harm The
sprouts which come out from the potato use
up the nourishment il contains, and leave it
soit, "aiery and insipd. BY treating them
as proposed above, they may be kept in con-
ditloh ior the table several weeks longer than
by sprouting them, and at the same time save
a lot of work.-N. e. Farmer.
THE VALUE OF sUFFLowERs.
We would cali the attention OF farmers to
the value of sunfowers as crop, and emu
merate some of the valves and uses. In the
first place, the flowers abound in honey. and
furnish food for bees. The seeds contain ole
aginous matter, and yield oil at the rate OF
one gallon to the barrel, which is but little
inferior to olive oil. One acre will p.oduce
fifty bushels of seeds. L. is also valuable for
food for horses and poulty; it has been used
for bread by the American Indians, and also
in Portugal. The leaves are excellent fodder
for cattle. The stalk while growing may be
utilized as bean poles when they are scarce
and difficult to be obtained, and when dry
may be used as a roofing, or set up against
fence to form wind-break. They contain a
large amount OF potash, and are excellent for
fire kindling. The seed has also been rec
ommelded for fuel. The reputation of the
growing sunfower to absorb miasmatic w
pors, and preventing fever and ague, is well
known Buckeye Farmer.
SUMNER FALLOwING AND FALLow CROPS.
e. IL l..
ture itself. The Israelites undoubtedly got
their idea of allowing the land TO lie fallow
once in seven years from the ancient Egyp-
tians, by whom they were ensaved. Their
fallows, however, did not include the turning
under OF green crops; for, even if the idea
had occurred to them, their implements of
tlllage would not have allowed that perfect
inversion of the soil necessary to covering
heavy growths of vegetation. 1t is only since
the invention and subsequent Improvement
of the modern plow that this has been rem
dered practicable, and with it the possibility
OF keeping the land shaded during a great
portion of the time of the falow. Even now
the importance of keeping the land shaded is
is not generally appreciated, as it shodld be.
Whatever may he SAID OF the importance OF
the application of barn-yard manuTes and
other fertilizers, TO keep up the strength OF
the land, it is undenia0ly true that, with the
many large farms of the West, it is not ieasi-
Bile, from lack of quantity ii no other cause,
to employ these manures to the exclusion of
other and easier means of renovation. 1t
must be a question for the farmer to decide,
| if the land is to be kept up with manure alto
gether, or with manure supplemented with
| following. Near cities where manure is plen-
ty, or where sufficient amount OF stock is
carried to furnish manure, We should advo-
cate this plan SO far it could be carried out.
Unfortunately, all cannot have their farms
near cities; and all cannot or viii not carry
stock sufficient to keep up the fertility of
their cultivated soil.
The most practicable plan, therefore, is
summer falowlns, either alone or in cOnnec-
ton with manure. When manure is to be
obtained in sufficient quantities, corn, pota-
| toes, etc., are undoubtedly the most econom-
| ical crops that can be employed to clean the
| soil of weeds. By the constant working ear
| ly i'm the season, and the perfect shade given
later, the soil is kept in the best possible con-
| dition, at the least expense, fol producing
| other crops in the rotation; and at the same
| time, while clearing the soil from weeds, the
farmer is getting ample pay for the labor be-
slowed
In the summer fallow proper, the land
must lose-a season. 1t must either rest en-
| tirely, or else support only such crops as will
| assist, through decay, in the nutriment of
| more valuable ones. To this end the begin
| ming should be made, if possible, in Autumn,
by plowing the soil thoroughly as soon as
| possible after the previous crop is taken oil,
| thus letting the soil lie exposed to the action
| OF air, water, and frost. In the spring sow
| to some crop that viii germinate early in the
| season. Peas, inferior wheat, rye, or even
| chess, since tine crop is not allowed to go to
| seed; anything that will cover the earth
| quickly. When this crop has arrived at a
| height of two feet or at least as soon as the
ftraf H.. l..
| hot more than four to six inches, and i'm
| mediately sow to com, buckwheat, Hunga-
| rian, or other crop that will again quickly
| shade the soil. If the land is to be sown to
| winter wheat, the fallow crop must be
| plowed under IN season for seeding. At all
| events, it must be turned in not later than
| the time of blossoming; or, il corn, at such
| times as will enable IL to be properly COW
/ cred. 1t the land is not to be used until
| spring, sow winter rye, to be pastured in the
j fall and turned under in the spring. Thus
you will have given the land three or four
powings, and will have had worked into the
| soil two or three crops, and, beside this, the
| soil viii have been kept shaded except dur
| ing the winter season, which will have done
good work in breaking down and disintesrat-
/ ing the soil.
We think that too little Importance has
been given 10 this question of shading the
| soil. We have always believed, and have
| practiced upon the belief, that a naked tallow
| will not realize more than half the benefit
| that would have been obtained il the land
had been kept shaded; for in the compara-
| lively cool place next the earth and about the
| foliage condensation is constantly going on,
/ and OF course there Is constant though slow
| deposition of nitrogen in its various combi-
| nations, as found in the air. We all
know that under buildings, or where the soil
is covered, these elements of fertility,
are rapidly accumulated and thence
| we may learn valuable lesson in the
| practical application of science TO agri-
4 culture. But while the soil is increasing
1 in fertility by this means it is only one OF
the means used.u The crops are constantly
drawing nouisbment from .he soil, and man-
| ufacturing it into other crop food in its most
| valuable state when decayed. 1t is also act
| ing mechanically as divisor to the soil; is
| furnishing the much needed humus, which,
/ again, is constantly taxing up and silently
l manufacturing from the elements the pabu-
| lun from which other crops are to feed. Re-
| peated rlowings mix all together, render the
soil irable, and the fertile surface is lett just
4 as it should be to give sure and constant re-
1 wards to those whose sagacity prompts them
| to take advantage of the means which nature
has placed before them. Such progressive
farmers reap abundant harvests by the exer-
else of tact and judgment in their Calling
| Western Rural.
Robert ThayerWiKde,
| THE NATTTRAT, MAGNETIC