Shipment of South Down Sheep to California.

MESSRS. LUTHER TUCKER & SON-I witnessed some few days since, the departure of a lot of South Down sheep for California, on board the steamer Moses Taylor; and it was doubly gratifying to me to know that they were from the farm of Mr. J. C. TAYLOR of Holmdel, Monmouth Co., N. J. They consisted of eight rams and two ewes. The price obtained for them in cash, before they were delivered on shipboard, was the highest average price ever received in this country-a much higher average than that of my ram sale of 1856. They were purchased by Messrs. J. W. MOWE and J. W. HAINES, of Sacramento, Cal., owners of some thousands of sheep, Mexican and American mixed, and they want these South Down rams to cross for improving mutton.

I forward you a block of Mr. Taylor's South-Down ram "Master Fordham," he being one of the lot sold. The price obtained for him was $300, being one hundred dollars more than any South-Down ram has sold for which was bred in this country. Mr. Taylor was induced to sell this ram, owing to his having secured from Mr. WEBB, a ram, which is now afloat, known to be the highest priced and finest qualitied South-Down ram ever shipped to this country. Mr. Taylor's flock being established as a full bred Webb flock and nothing else in it, Mr. Webb has secured to Mr. Taylor this sheep, to breed upon the get of the celebrated imported bucks "Young York" and "Frank," and also to a few of the get of the American bred ram "Master Fordham," as he at the time of his shipment to California, weighed more than any of the other celebrated rams at the same age, and equalled, if not surpassed, them in form and beauty. Mr. Taylor's sales for the last two years, notwithstanding the hard times for fancy articles, have fully established his success as a breeder. L. G. MORRIS. Mount Fordham, July 22.

A New Kind of Wheat. MESSRS. TUCKER & SON-I send you nerewith some wheat, called "Goose Wheat." It was found in the crops of wild geese, shut on a desolate island in the North Pacific, and planted here last year. It is known to yield well, and the straw to be good fodder, about equal to hay. It is said to be equal to rice when cracked and boiled. It is also said to be difficult to grind it fine on acount of its hardness. It is presumed that it will do well on the old rye-fields of the Eastern States. It is known to make good bread, of a yellowish color. It is not known if best in your climate to plant in fall or spring; let half be planted this fall, and the other in the spring, and mark the difference. I am of the opinion that it will be a valuable grain to the New England States and New-York. Please to experiment with it yourself, or give it to some one who will do so properly. I am told that the straw when green, is equal to the Chinese sugar cane for its saccharine sap. A. K. BENTON. Campo Seco, Calaveras Co., Cala [We are much obliged to our correspondent for the seed enclosed with the above. We shall place it in safe hands for trial, and report the results another year.]

CHESTER CO. (PA) AG. SOCIETY.-We are indebted to the Treasurer, J. LACEY DARLINGTON, Esq., for the Premium List of this Society, whose Fair, which is to be held at West-Chester on the 1st and 2d of October, we hope to have the pleasure of attending. We tender the Managers of the Society our thanks for their liberal appreciation of our Journals, manifested by placing one hundred copies of the COUNTRY GENTLEMAN and sixty of THE CULTIVATOR, on their Premium List.

THE VERMONT STATE FAIR is to be held at Burlington on the 14th and 17th Sept., and we doubt not will be largely attended by the farmers of Eastern and Northern New-York, as a liberal list of premiums is offered for horses, cattle and sheep from out of the State. The Address is to be delivered by Hon. JACOB COLLAMER.

Insects on the Potato Vines.

FRIEND TUCKER-Thee will very much oblige, if thee can'st afford me any information in regard to the history of certain insects, that have badly infested my potato vines, the past two or three seasons. This year they are more numerous than in any previous year, and I fear they will very much lessen my potato crop. Nearly every hill in a large field has more or less of the insects among the leaves, and generally they are found in pairs. The bugs or flies, are about one-quarter of an inch in length, of a brownish-buff color, with three black stripes on the back; they are larger, but much resemble the yellow striped cucumber bug. I find numerous clusters of dark yellow, oval shaped eggs upon the leaves, a dozen or so in a group, some upon the upper, and others on the under side of the leaf And within a few days, I find upon the vines numerous filthy looking slugs, and they are rapidly devouring the leaves, leaving the ribs and leaf-stalks entirely stripped of the foliage. Are the eggs and the slugs the produce of the striped fly? Do they injure or lessen the crop? Have they any connection with the potato disease or rot? Is there any feasible method of destroying them? Any information in reference to the foregoing questions, will be thankfully received by thy

friend. OBED Buffum.

The striped insect about which friend B writes, is the "three-tined leaf-beetle" of the entomologists. It is about one-fourth of an inch long, of a rusty buff or nankin-yellow color, with two black dots on the back of the neck, and three black stripes on the back, viz: one on each wing-cover, and one in the middle on the inner edges of the same. They appear early in June on the leaves of the potato vines, having at that time recently come out of the ground, where they pass the winter in the pupa state. They (the winged insect) eat the leaves of the potato, gnawing irregular holes through them; and in the course of a few days, begin to lay their oval golden yellow eggs, which are glued to the leaves, in parcels of six or eight together. The grubs, which are hatched in about a fortnight afterwards, are of a dirty yellowish or ashen white color, with a darker colored head. After making a hearty meal upon the leaves of the potato, they cover themselves with their own filth. In eating, the grubs move backwards, never devouring the portion of the leaf immediately before the head, but that which lies under it. Their numbers are sometimes very great, and the leaves are then covered and nearly consumed by these filthy insects. In about fifteen days, they leave the plant and bury themselves in the groundthere they form the necessary cell for passing through the change from the grub to the perfect insect, which occupies about fifteen days. The beetles come out of the ground towards the end of July, or early in August, and lay their eggs for a second brood of grubs; these come to their growth and go into the ground in the autumn, and remain there in the pupa form during winter.

We are indebted to the late Prof. Harris' work on insects for much of the foregoing history of the potato beetle-and he says "the only method that occurs to me, by which we may get rid of these insects, when they are so numerous as to be injurious to plants, is to brush them from the leaves into shallow vessels containing a little salt and water or vinegar."

No doubt large numbers of the beetles and the grubs might be destroyed as suggested by Dr. H., but it would be rather a slow way of ridding a large field of them. Dry ashes, or lime, sifted upon the vines in the morning, while the dew was upon the leaves, might perhaps prove useful in ridding the plants of the insects, both in the winged and grub state. A flock of turkeys in a field of potatoes might prove very useful in destroying these pests; children might be employed in examining the leaves and removing those having deposits of eggs upon them. In this way, their ravages and increase might be very much curtailed.

The second brood of grubs (as already said) come to their growth in the autumn, and go into the ground and remain there in the pupa form during winter," and about the first of June appear in the winged form. If potatoes are planted on the same ground, or near it, for several years in succession, as is frequently the case in kitchen gardens, the insects become so numerous in course of three or four years, as to ruin the crop, as we know by actual experience. Therefore, it would seem advisable to plant the potatoes at some distance from where they were grown the previous year.

There can be no doubt but what the crop of potatoes is much lessened by the destruction of the leaves of the plants-and the loss will be in proportion to the de

struction of the leaves. We do not think that the potato rot. Two years ago our early potatoes were "bugs or their progeny" have any connection with the nearly ruined by the ravages "of these filthy insects," but there was no rot in the tubers of the scanty crop.

These insects, like the grasshopper and some others, may soon disappear from localities where they are now so numerous, or they may, like the wheat midge, become a "permanent fixture," to blast the hopes of the farmer in growing profitable crops of potatoes.

Wheat Growing in Delaware.

["I feel somewnat in high dudgeon," writes our correspondent in a private note, "that you should have called on so many of our friends and neighbors in Maryland, without giving us in Delaware a call." From this week's paper, however, he will learn that we did see something of Delaware; we regret that owing to the stormy week, we could not have gone as far as Middletown, and shall hope to complete the visit at some future day. Meantime, he will accept thanks for his contributions, and excuse us for the omission of a part, on which there are too many views too widely differing from each other, to hope for any available result from the discussion of the subject in our columns, already crowded as they are, and devoted more especially to practical than to political Agriculture. EDs.]

MESSRS. EDITORS-We are in the height of the wheat harvest hereabouts; and although we have heard as usual, a good deal said about the ravages of the locust, the grasshopper, the chinch bug, the joint worm, the army and the grub worm, the weevil, the Hessian fly, the scab, smut and the fungii, with something about the winter kill and overflow-all of these reports mostly from the sunny south and the much boasted west-the crop I am pleased to say, is still about a full average with us. The fancy wheats-all the varieties of the white and beardless particularlythe Velvet and the Gale's wheat, have suffered from some cause or other, mostly the scab and rust-we have no smut. There was, however, not much of any other variety than the old Mediterranean of the imporitation of 1819, sowed in this section of the state, nor

has there been for the past 20 years as a general sowing. The Mediterranean, when first sown, was a coarse, unsightly, large grained, half shrivelled, dark-looking wheat, not liked by our Brandywine millers-rejected by some of them as not fit to grind at the price of ordinary reds. But a few farmers who tried the early sowing in August, and some in July-found that the straw was stiffer, and that it was not as liable to be injured by the Hessian fly, and as it ripened when sown so early some ten days earlier than the varieties then sown, of the old reds, the yellow bearded, and the smooth head, caga and blue stem white wheats-it became more in favor, having in the meantime become more acclimated, plumper in shape, and being less liaable from the attacks by fly, from the stiffness of the straw, and less liable to rust and scab, by being earlier, consequently escaping those three enemies of the wheat. It is now the favorite and most certain crop, and of a quality known in the market as best of the reds, producing when well sown on good fields from 20 to 40 bushels per acre. I have known 47 bushels on corn ground the field through; and from the appearance of the shocks, much of the wheat of the present season will range with the above rates, and those averages are all made on land that in 1832 would scarcely produce an average of five bushels per acre, and which was purchased since then at an average of $10 per acre.

Absorbent Power of Soils.

"the act or

ABSORPTION, defined by WEBSTER as process of imbibing by substances which drink in and retain liquids," is a quality possessed by all soils in a greater or less degree. And of this difference in capacity, especially as regards absorbing and retaining manures, something has long been known, and has given rise to the application of the terms "hungry" and "quick," to loose and gravelly soils, because they do not long show the effect, and speedily manifest the action of manures, while clays were said to "hold" the fertilizing matters applied. The investigations of chemistry show that beside what would naturally result from the different mechanical action-the compactness or porosity of the soil-there are differences in their chemical affinities for acids, alkalies and gases, which vary their power of absorbing and retaining the elements of fertility derived from manures.

Loamy and aluminous soils were found by Prof. WAY to possess the power, when used as a leach or filter, of retaining the ammonia, phosphoric acid, potash, etc., contained in the drainage of a London sewer-the very elements most valuable for manure-and to have the wonderful property, not only to select, but to retain these elements against every power naturally brought to bear upon them, save the growth of plants themselves. "A power," he remarks, "is here found to reside in soils, by virtue of which not only is rain unable to wash out of them those soluble ingredients

borhood, Wheatland, my own, has been brought up fairly by the use of lime and clover. The first dressing put on in 1836, of 40 bushels of quick-lime on corn followed with wheat-corn with clover turned under without pasturing-produced 24 bushels. After several rotations between times, in 1848 this encouraged me to lime again, and in 1849 I put the same stubble field in corn, and gave the corn a dressing of 50 bushels to the acre. This was too heavy-40 bushels would have done better; the corn was injured by it. This I laid to the wire-worm, and thought I would remedy it, and planted it with corn the following season, but had still less corn than the year previous. I however cut off the corn, sowed with wheat followed with clover, and had a fair crop of wheat, and a tremendous field of clover. A portion, say 32 acres of this field of clover, after standing two years with light pasturing, I turned under well in July, and sowed with wheat in 1852-cut and saved 37 bushels in the harvest of 1853, besides losing all the rakings from continued rains, which would have swelled the crop to 40 bushels and over, had all been saved. That same field is now in wheat, and from the appearance of the shocks, bids fair to be as good as that of 1853-without any dressing of manures except as before, two years of clover and lightly pastured-well turned under in July last, and sown in last of August and first week of September.

Thus in the short space of 20 years we have increased the value of our land by better cultivation and the introduction of fertilizers and improved implements, till both our land and our crops have been increased in value over tenfold. Much land that we bought at ten, yea five dollars per acre, cannot now be purchased for $120 per acre, and the production of our crops of wheat has been increased from five or less to forty bushels per acre. JOHN JONES. Middletown, New Castle Co., Delaware.

these compounds, when introduced artificially by manures, are laid hold of and fixed in the soil to the absolute preclusion of any loss, either by rain or evaporation."

These conclusions seem to show that on most soils

(one class of experiments was made with light loam) manure may be applied at any time in the season with equal good results-that there is no danger of loss when actually mixed with the soil, either by filtration or evaporation. Further experiments are needed to prove the absolute correctness of these conclusions to the general mind, but there are those who believe they may act upon them with safety. If established, much labor may be saved in the application of manures. They may be drawn in the fall and plowed under, or left spread upon the surface, or may be distributed in winter instead of immediately before planting and sowing, which is ever the most hurrying season of the year. For ourself, on clays or heavy lands, we would not hesitate to act upon these suggestions.

Some experiments tried in England several years since by Mr. THOMPSON, to ascertain the power of the soil to retain unimpaired in value, manure applied during winter, and also its power to hold in suspension the fixed ammonia of barn-yard tanks and manure heaps, resulted in the following deductions: 1. That clay soils might be manured a considerable time before sowing without loss. 2. That light, shallow soils should not be manured heavily at one time; and the manure should be kept as near the surface as possible without leaving it uncovered. 3. That it is desirable to deepen the cultivated soil on all light land, as it thus gives it a greater power of retaining manure.

That all soils possess considerable power of absorbing and retaining manure, is well known; but the great question of the most economical application of different fertilizers is, and will long remain an open one, and one upon which every farmer can do more or less to satisfy himself by practical experiment. Let those who can, throw light upon the subject, for it is one of large importance in agriculture.

"Oats for Sheep "-Rearing Lambs.

A "Young Farmer" recently inquired whether "oats were injurious to ewes with lamb ?" Perhaps the subject is worthy of some further notice.

It is a settled opinion with a large class of farmers, that ewes, to do well, should receive little or no grain during the winter, and they bring instances, as does the inquirer above named, in which grain (oats or corn, generally,) has been fed, which were followed by the loss of lambs at birth or when a few days old. But

these instances if closely examined will disclose further

facts something after the following order.

The flock were in rather indifferent order when they came to the yard in December, and from want of proper attention to their feeding and shelter, became still lower in flesh as the winter advances. At last the owner wakes up to the fact, and thinks he must do something to bring them on, or he shall lose all his lambs and perhaps a part of his old sheep. So, as late, perhaps, as the middle of February or first of March, he commences to give grain, and to "have it do some good," gives "a pint per day or more; at any rate a larger quantity than the sheep can bear in their low condition. A sudden increase in flesh is the consequence, accompanied with derangement of the animal system-which results in difficult labors at lambing, fever and loss of milk in the ewe, and the death of the lamb from want of suitable nourishment.

Another class of farmers say that oats are not injurious to sheep, basing the declaration on their own experience. We have fed them to a considerable amount, and never raised better lambs-never had fewer losses than when oats were given each day for some months before lambing. As to corn, an Eastern farmer, who has kept sheep for twenty years, and has been in the habit of feeding corn for some weeks previous to lambing, says he never lost a lamb in consequence of his sheep having been in too high flesh. He has at the present time twenty ewes and thirty-one lambs-nine pairs, one triplet, and ten single-and has lost none from any cause.

If sheep are kept in good condition at all times, they are little liable to injury from feeding grain. On the contrary, they are much benefitted by the practice. We have found barley an excellent grain for sheep, and think farmers will find it profitable to grow the same for feeding out on the farm.

Sheep should be in good order, so as to yield a good flow of milk for their lambs. How can they supply two lambs (as is often necessary) without some extra feed? Roots are valuable as well as grain, and good early cut clover hay is a great help to thrift and comfort. The lambs also may be learned to eat, and if they come early, some provision of this sort should be made. The Eastern farmer above referred to, speaks on this point (in the N. E. Farmer) as follows:

"I have practiced for a number of years messing my lambs, in a small enclosure adjoining the sheep-pen, with an opening large enough to let them through and keep out the sheep. They will generally begin to eat when they are two weeks old. For the past five or six weeks, my lambs (thirty-one in number) have taken from twelve to sixteen quarts of meal per day. I am not very particular as respects the kind of meal, though I rather prefer equal parts of corn and oil-meal. I have twin lambs at the present time, not far from two months old, which will weigh nearly sixty pounds. If in addition to the meal, they have plenty of good hay in a crib by themselves, they will require but little else. They will not be continually worry.

ing the sheep, so that not only the lambs but the sheep will be in much better condition on turning to grass than they otherwise would. I have never discovered any injurious effects from giving my lambs so much meal, although I always let them eat all they will."

Improving Stock by Good Feeding.

MESSRS. EDITORS-I recently had occasion to visit an old gentleman who has been a farmer from his youth up, and who, on account of his soundness of judgment, is regarded in his neighborhood as quite an authority in matters of farm management. Among other subjects upon which we conversed, I found him especially enthusiastic, and withal sound and sensible, upon the improvement of stock. Some years ago a bull of the Short-Horn breed had been brought into his neighborhood, for the use of which $25, and then $20, and latterly $15, had been the usual charges. Like most other new things, this movement was at first regarded with a cautious coolness, or even a suspicion of attempted imposition, on the part of this conservative or man of slow progress. He had been engaged for many years in improving the native stock by rearing only the best calves, and doing this by the help of much more nutritious food than is usually given to calves intended for preservation; and he would often tell his neighbors who had had the use of this Short- Horn, that he would admit that they had spent their $20 wisely when they should be prepared to prove to him that their cows of the improved breed, half Short-Horn and half native, did really surpass some of his in dairy products. His desire not to be outdone by his "new-fangled" neighbors, led him, he said, to greater care and exertion than he had ever before made to make his calves and young creatures grow in the most thrifty manner possible, and he seemed very confident, (referring to cases by seeing which I might satisfy myself as to the correctness of his statements,) that stock which he had raised by special care, entirely of the native breed, was quite superior to some of the stock raised by some of his neighbors, though with one-half of the Durham blood in their veins. This superiority of his young stock, entirely native, to that of some of his neighbors, he was candid enough to admit as owing mainly to his own extra feeding and care-taking generally, and to the want of proper care and feeding on the part of those whose half-blood stock was inferior to his own. In cases where stock of the latter description had been properly fed and reared, the advantage of the Short-Horn cross was so evident, that our slow-moving friend was at length willing to admit it, and also to practice accordingly. He showed me a calf of this cross of nearly a year old, and so evident was its superiority to other calves of the same cross and about the same age in the neighborhood, as to convince me that judicious rearing is about of as much importance in procuring first-rate animals as crossing with the very best breed

in existence.

The method of rearing calves which our friend has found so successful, consists mainly in feeding or suckling them three times a day, using nothing but new milk until they are eight weeks old-after which he gives skim-milk with flax-seed tea. Upon the withdrawal of the milk, besides abundance of grass, each calf is supplied with two pounds of oil-cake in the course of the day. He reckons that he is abundantly paid for all his extra labor in rearing calves in this way by their greater thriftiness, and especially by their immunity from disease. For twenty years he had not had a calf get sick or die, as they often do by common modes of rearing. A. R. A.

Notes and Inquiries.

THE PENN. STATE AG. SOCIETY, whose Prize List we have just received from one of its Vice-Presidents, AMOS E. KAPP, Esq., is to hold its next Fair at Pittsbugh, from Sept. 28 to Oct. 1.

ROCK-ISLAND CO. (ILL) AG. SOCIETY.-This Society, whose Fair is to be held at Rock-Island, Sept. 8 and 9, has adopted the plan of paying most of its prizes in agricultural books and papers--among the latter a goodly number of the COUNTRY GENTLEMAN are included.

We are indebted to SUEL FOSTER, Esq., Muscatine, for the Prize List of the Iowa State Ag. Society, whose Fair is to be held at Oskaloosa, Sept. 28 to Oct. 1.

BOUND VOLUMES OF THE CULTIVATOR.-D. S., Ohio, asks 1. What do the bound volumes of the "Cultivator cost, including postage; and in what style are they bound? [One Dollar-bound in black cloth, containing 384 large and closely printed pages. Complete sets of the Third Series for 1853-'4,-'5-'6 and '7, are supplied for $5 by mail, or sent by Express for $3.75.] 2. Are the "Transactions of the State Agricultural Society," sent gratis to all applications; or, if not, what do they cost?" [They are generally printed merely for such members as according to each society's bye-laws are entitled to them; for public libraries, for distribution as premiums, for exchange between different societies, &c. They are therefore, seldom to be had by purchase, or in answer to ordinary applications, although extra copies are occasionally to be procured in this way.] 3. Can you give me the address of either or all of the following persons, viz: the Corresponding Sec. of the New York State Ag. Society; [Col. BENJ. P. JOHNSON, Albany, N. Y.,] ditto of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture; [CHARLES L. FLINT, Esq., Boston, Mass. ;] Kentucky Ag. Society; [R. W. SCOTT, Esq., Frankfort, Ky.]

SUGAR CANE MILL.-Several who have inquired for mills for crushing the Chinese Sugar Cane, are referred to the advertisement of EMERY BROTHERS, in this paper. We are told that there is a cheaper mill for this purpose, made at Worcester, Mass. If so, the manufacturers would promote their interest by advertising it.

I like the COUNTRY GENTLEMAN immensely, especially the "Grazier," (which ought to be more voluminous,) as I believe in stock. Durham grades and Cotswolds are the stock for Canada. H. R. F.

It is a maxim among an excellent class of farmers, "That a good farm, like a good joint of meat, only requires basting with its own dripping." Carry this out by using all the fertilizing materials which the farm will furnish, and there will be little need of going abroad for manures. It must be a system of mixed husbandry, however, and stock must be kept to aid in the manufacture of the "dressing" ever necessary in good farming.

INSECTS.-A bright fire of resinous pine, tar, shavings, or any other combustible, kindled in the garden at night, on a platform erected for that purpose, will attract and destroy millions of insects.

AGRICULTURAL PAPERS.-The commencement of a new volume of the COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, (July 1) reminds us of the duty of suggesting that paper to our readers as in every respect excellent. Two dollars a year are well invested in such a constant source of instruction and pleasure, in which everything is suggestive of intelligence and refinement. Albany: Luther Tucker & Son.-Vermont Chronicle.

THE subscriber being agent and Manufacturer of the justly celebrated Krauser's Patent Cider Mill, which has obtained such enviable notoriety wherever used, is prepared to furnish them for the coming season on most favorable terms, to agents and farmers. The machine has never been excelled, having always come off triumphant at the various State and County Fairs where it has been exhibited. Circulars containing cuts and descriptions of the mills, as well as all other implements of our manufacture, sent gratis on application. The public are cautioned against purchasing or using an inferior imitation of our mill, which is at present being manufactured in this city, as all mills which are so constructed as to force the apples up to the grating cylinder by means of a plunger or plun gers, infringe on the patent of the Krauser machine, and the purchasers of such lay themselves open to a suit for infringement. The true Krauser Mill will have the name of the inventor marked upon them. None without this name have a right to be sold.

All orders for the above will receive our prompt and personal attention, and we feel assured we have it in our power to please the most fastidious. Liberal discounts for HICH. H. PEASE,

cash. Address

July 23-w3tmlt.

Albany, N. Y.

SUGAR CANE MILL.

THE above cut illustrates a new mill being manufactured in this city, by Messrs. EMERY BROTHERS of the Albany Agl. Works, and is so calculated as to be driven by their Two Horse Railway Power. It is a Three Roller Horizontal Mill, with counter shaft and geered motion. The Mill is strong and substantially made, and attached to a heavy and strong wood frame. It is capable of expressing from Sixty to One Hundred Gallons of juice per hour, depending upon how closely the rollers are adjusted and the maturity of the cane. The driest pressing of the cane renders the richest juice. The Mills will be ready in time for the coming cane harvest. Price for Mill complete for Two Horse Power, do Mill without wood frame, (Weight about 500 lbs.)

For further information see the

ILLUMINATED CATALOGUE

$100.00 85.00

Of the Albany Agl. Works, furnished gratis, on receipt of six cents to prepay postage on same, by the Proprietors. EMERY BROTHERS,

July 29-w&mlt.

52 State Street, Albany, N. Y.