Here is another general mark, easily distinguishable from all the others by its outline. The first order (fig. 9) will give eighteen quarts a day, and give milk eight months, or within a month of calving. Yellowish skin; delicate bag, covered with fine downy hair, as in the higher orders of all the preceding classes. The eighth order of this class (fig. 10) will give only two and a half quarts per day, and none after conceiving anew. The gradation from first to eighth order is regular, as in the others.
SIXTH CLASS.
Yield of first order (fig. 11) eighteen quarts per day; time, eight months. Skin within the escutcheon same color, bag equally delicate, and hair fine, as in all the first orders. Eighth order (fig. 12) yields about two quarts per day, and dries up on getting with calf.
First order in this class (fig. 13) gives fifteen quarts; time, eight months. The skin, bag, and hair, same as in the higher orders in all the classes. The eighth order (fig. 14) will yield two and a half quarts per day, and dry up when with calf.
EIGHTH CLASS.
First order (fig. 15) will give fifteen quarts per day; time, eight months. Skin in escutcheon reddish-yellow and silky, hair fine, teats far apart. The eighth order (fig. 16) yields two and a half quarts a day, and dries up on getting with calf.
Each class of cows has a kind called bastards, among those whose escutcheons would otherwise indicate the first order of their class: these often deceive the most practised eye. The only remedy is to become familiar with the infallible marks given by Guenon by which bastards may be known. This defect will account for the irregularity of many cows, and their suddenly going dry on becoming with calf, and often for the bad quality of their milk. They are distinguished by the lines of ascending and descending hair in their escutcheon.
In the Flanders cow (fig. 17) there are two bastards; one distinguished by the fact that the hair forming the line of the escutcheon bristles up, like beards on a head of grain, instead of lying smooth, as in the genuine cow; they project over the intersection of the ascending and descending hair in a very bristling manner. The other bastard of the Flanders cow is known by having an oval patch of downward growing hair, about eight inches below the vulva, and in a line with it; in the large cows it is four inches long, and two and a half wide, and the hair within it always of a lighter color than that surrounding it. Cows of this mark are always imperfect. In the bastards, the skin on the escutcheon is usually reddish; it is smooth to the touch, and yields no dandruff.
Bastards of the SELVAGE COW are known by two oval patches of ascending hair, one on each side of the vulva, four or five inches long, by an inch and a half wide (fig. 18). The larger the spot, and the coarser the hair, the more defective they prove, and vice versa.
Bastards of the CURVELINE COW are known by the size of spots of hair on each side of the vulva (fig. 18). When they are of four or five inches by one and a half, and pointed or rounded at the ends, they indicate bastards. If they be small, the cow will not lose her milk very rapidly on getting with calf.
Bastards of the BICORN COW are indicated precisely as in the preceding—by the size of the spots of ascending hair, above the escutcheon and by the sides of the vulva (F, F, fig. 18).
Bastards of the DEMIJOHN COW are distinguished precisely as the two preceding—size of the streaks (fig. 18).
The SQUARE ESCUTCHEON COW indicates bastards, by a streak of hair at the right of the vulva (fig. 19). When that ascending hair is coarse and bristly, it is a sure evidence that the animal is a bastard.
Limousine cows show their bastards precisely as do the CURVELINE and BICORN, by the size of the ascending streaks of hair, on the right and left of the vulva. (Fig. 19.)
Bastards of the HORIZONTAL CUT COWS have no escutcheon whatever. By this they are always known.
Some bastards are good milkers until they get with calf, and then very soon dry up. Others are poor milkers. Those with coarse hair and but little of it, in the escutcheon, give poor, watery milk. Those of fine, thick hair will give good milk.
Bulls have escutcheons of the same shape as the cows, but on a smaller scale. Whenever there are streaks of descending hair bristling up among the ascending hair of the escutcheon, rendering it quite irregular and rough in its appearance, the animal is regarded as a bastard. Never put a cow to any bull that has not a regular, well-defined, and smooth escutcheon. This is as fully as we have room to go into M. Guenon's details. We fear this will fall into the hands of many who will not take the pains to master even these distinctions. To those who will, we trust they will be found plain, and certain in their results. From all this, one thing is certain, and that is of immense value to the farmer: it is, that on general principles, without remembering the exact figure of one of the indications above given, or one of the arbitrary terms it has been necessary to use, any man can tell the quality and quantity of milk a cow will give, and the time she will give milk, with sufficient accuracy to buy no cow and raise no heifer that will not be a profitable dairy cow, if that is what he desires. The rules by which these things may be known are the following:
No cow, of any class, is ever a good milker, that has not a large surface of hair growing upward from the teats and covering the inner surface of the thighs, and extending up toward or to the tail.
No cow that is destitute of this mark, or only has a very small one, is ever a good milker. Every cow having a scanty growth of coarse hair in the above mark will only give poor, watery milk; and every cow having a thick growth of fine hair on the escutcheon, or surface where it ascends, and considerable dandruff, will always give good rich milk, and be good for butter and cheese.
Every cow on which this mark is small will give but little milk, and dry up soon after getting with calf, and is not fit to be kept.
Observe these brief rules, and milk your cows at certain hours every day—milk very quickly, without stopping, and very clean, not leaving a drop—and you never will have a poor cow on your farm, and at least twenty-five per cent. will be added to the value of the ordinary dairy, that is made up of cows purchased or raised in the usual, hap-hazard way.
If your cows' udders swell after calving, wash them in aconite made weak with water; it is very good for taking out inflammation. Other common remedies are known. If your cow or other creature gets choked, pour into the throat half a pint, at least, of oil; and by rubbing the neck, the obstruction will probably move up or down. Curry your cows as thoroughly as you do your horses; and if they ever chance to get lousy, wash them in a decoction of tobacco.
CRANBERRY.
This is native in the northern parts of both hemispheres. In England and on the continents of Europe and Asia, native cranberries are inferior, in size and quality, to the American. Our own have also been greatly improved by cultivation. They have become an important article of commerce, and find a ready sale, at high prices, in all the leading markets of the country. Their successful cultivation, therefore, deserves attention, as really as that of other fruits. Mr. B. Eastwood has written a volume on the subject, which probably contains all the facts already established, together with many opinions of scientific and practical cultivators. The work is valuable, but much less so than it would have been, had the author put into a few pages the important facts, and left out all speculations and diversities of opinion. The objection to most of this kind of literature is the intermixture of facts and valuable suggestions with so much that is not only useless, but absolutely pernicious, by the confusion it creates. We think the following directions for the cultivation of the cranberry are complete, according to our present knowledge:—
Soil.—It is universally agreed that beach sand is the best. Not from the beach of the ocean barely, but of lakes, ponds, or rivers. There is no evidence that any saline quality that may be in sand from the beach of the sea, is particularly useful. It is the cleanness of the sand, on which account it is less calculated to promote a growth of weeds, and allows a free passage of moisture toward the surface. Hence white sand is preferable, and the cleaner the better. Whoever has a moist meadow in the soil of which there is considerable sand has a good place for a cranberry bed. If you have not a sand meadow, select a plat of ground as moist as any you have, upon which water will not stand unless you confine it there, and draw on sand to the depth of four or six inches, having first removed any grass or break-turf, that may be in danger of coming up as weeds to choke the vines. If you make the ground mellow below and then put on the sand, you will have a bed that will give you but little further trouble. Peat soils will do, if you take off the top and expose to the weather, frosts and rains, one year before planting. The first year, peat will dry and crack, so as to destroy young cranberry vines. But after one winter's frost, it becomes pulverized and will not again bake. Hence it is next to sand for a cranberry bed.
Situation.—The shore of a body of water, or of a small pond is best, if it be not too much exposed to violent action of wind and waves. Land that retains much moisture within a foot of the surface, but which does not become stagnant, is very valuable. The bottoms of small ponds that can be drained off are very good. Any land that can be flowed with water at pleasure is good. By flooding, the blossoms are kept back till late spring frosts are gone. Any upland can be prepared as above. But if it be a very dry soil it must have a liberal supply of water during dry weather, or success may not be expected.
Planting.—There are several methods. Sod planting consists in preparing the land and then cutting out square sods containing vines, and setting them at the distances apart, you desire. This was the general method; but it is objectionable, on account of the weeds that will grow out of the sod and choke the vines. This method is improved by tearing away the sod, leaving the roots naked, and then planting. Another method is to cut off a vigorous shoot, and plant the middle of it, with each end protruding from the soil two or three inches apart. Roots will come out by all the leaves that are buried, and promote the springing of many new vines, and thus the early matting of the bed which is very desirable.
Others take short slips and thrust four or five of them together down into the soil as they do slips of currant bushes, thus making a hill of as many plants. And yet another method is, to cut up the vines into pieces of two or three inches in length, and broad cast them on mellow soil, and harrow them in as wheat—Others bury the short pieces in drills. In either case they will soon mat the whole ground, if the land be not weedy. The best plan for small beds is probably the middle planting.
Distances apart depend upon your design in cultivating. If your soil is such that so many weeds will grow as to require cultivating with a horse, or much hoeing, four feet one way and two the other is the best. Better have land so well covered with clean sand, that very few weeds will grow and no cultivation be needed. Then set vines one foot apart and very soon the whole ground will be perfectly matted and will need very little care for years. For two or three years pull out the weeds by hand, and the ground will be covered and need nothing more.
Varieties.—There are three principal ones of the lowland species. The bell, the bugle, and the cherry cranberries. These are named from their shape. Probably the cherry is the best, being the size, shape, and color of the cultivated red cherries. There has recently been discovered an upland variety, on the shores of Lake Superior, that bids fair to be as hardy and productive as the common currant. On all poor, hard, and even very dry uplands, it does remarkably well. It grows extensively in the northern part of the British provinces. The fruit is smaller than the other varieties but is delicious, beautiful in color, and very abundant. It will probably be one of our great and universal luxuries.
Healthy and Unhealthy Plants.—By this cultivators denote those that bear well and those that do not. And yet the unhealthy, or those that bear the least, are the larger, greener-leaved, and rapid-growing varieties. It is difficult to describe them so that an unpractised eye would know them from each other. The best way to be sure of getting the right kind is to purchase of a man you can trust, or visit the beds when the fruit is in perfection and witness where the crop is abundant, mark it, and let it remain until you are ready to plant. This is always best done in the spring, or from May 15th to June 15th.
Gathering—is performed by hand, or with a cranberry-rake. Hand-picking is best for the vines, but is more expensive. If a rake be used, it will draw out some small runners and retard the growth of young vines. But it is such a saving of expense, it had better be used, and always drawn the same way. The fruit should be cleared of leaves and decayed berries; and if intended for a near market, be packed dry in barrels. If to be transported far, put them in small casks, say half-barrels, with good water. They may thus be carried around the globe in good condition. To keep well they should not be exposed to fall frosts, and should not be picked before ripe. A little practice, and at first on a small scale, may enable American cultivators of the soil, generally, to have good cranberry beds. Much of the practical part of this can only be learned by experience. The above suggestions will save much loss and discouragement.
Enemies—are worms that attack the leaves, and another species that attack the berries. There are only two remedies proposed, viz., fire and water. If you can flood your beds you will destroy them. If not, take a time not very dry so as to endanger burning the roots, and burn over your cranberry-beds, so as to consume all the vines. Next season new vines will grow up free from worms.
CUCUMBERS.
There are quite a number of varieties. But a few only deserve attention. The best, for all uses, is the Early Cluster, a great bearer of firm, tender, brittle fruit. Early Frame, Long White, Turkey, and Long Green Turkey, are rather beautiful, but not prolific varieties. Long Prickly, is very good for pickles, and fills a cask rapidly, but is by no means so pleasant as the Early Cluster. The Short Prickly and White Spined are considerably used. The West India or small Gherkin is used only for pickling, and is considered fine. But we regard all these inferior to the Early Cluster.
Soil should be made very rich with compost and vegetable mould, with a liberal application of sand. All vines do better in a sandy soil. Plant in the open air only after the weather has become quite warm. An effort to get early cucumbers by early out-door planting is usually a failure; seeds decay, or having come up, after a long while, they grow slowly, and vines and fruit are apt to be imperfect. Six feet apart, each way, is the best distance; and after the plants get out of the way of insects, and become well established, two vines in each hill is better than more: the fruit will be better and more abundant, and they will bear much longer than when vines are left to grow very thick. They need water in dry weather (see Watering). The first week in July is the best time to plant for pickling. In a warm, dry climate, cucumbers do better a little shaded, but not too much. Planted among young fruit-trees, or in alternate rows with corn, they do well. If allowed to run up bushes like peas, they produce more and better fruit. Forcing for an early crop is often done, by digging a hole in the ground, two feet deep and two feet square, and filling with hot manure, stamped down well, and covered with six inches of fine mould. Put around a frame and cover with glass, at an angle of thirty-five degrees to the sun. Plant one hundred seeds on the two feet square; when they come up, put two plants in a pot, set in a regular hotbed, and keep well watered and aired until the weather be warm enough to transplant in the open air; then remove from the pots without breaking the ball of earth, and plant six feet apart. Four plants left in the original hill will bear earlier than those that have been removed. To get a large quantity of very early ones, plant a corresponding number of hills, with the two feet of manure, as above; whenever the weather becomes hot, they will need to be well watered, or they will dry up. All cucumber-plants forced should have the main runner cut off, after the second rough leaf appears; this brings fruit earlier and twice as abundant. On transplanting cucumbers, or any other vines, cover them wholly from the sun for three days, or, if the weather be dry, for a whole week. We once thought melons and cucumbers very difficult to transplant successfully; but we ascertained the only difficulty to be, the want of sufficient water and shade. When roots and soil were so dry that the dirt all fell off, we have transplanted with perfect success; but for a week the plants appeared to be ruined. We kept them covered and well watered, and they revived and made a great crop, much earlier than seeds planted at the same time. Protection of plants from insects has been a subject of much study and many experiments. Ashes and lime, and various decoctions and offensive mixtures, have been recommended. We discard them all, as both troublesome and ineffectual. Our experience is, most decidedly, in favor of fencing each hill, of all vines, to keep off insects. A box a foot square and fifteen inches high, the lower edge set in the soil, will usually prove effectual. Put over a pane of glass, and it will be more sure, and increase the warmth and consequently the growth of the plants. Put millinet over the boxes, instead of glass, and not a hill will be lost. If a cutworm chances to be fenced in, he will show himself by cutting off a plant. Search him out and kill him, and all will be safe. Such boxes, well taken care of, will last for ten years. This, then, is a cheap as well as effectual method.
Cucumbers are a cooling, healthy article of diet, used in reasonable quantities. They should be sliced into cold water, taken out, and put in sharp vinegar with pepper and salt. Ripe cucumbers make one of the best of pickles: for directions in making, we refer to the cook-books. If you have room near your back door for one large hill of cucumbers, you may obtain a remarkable growth. Dig down deep enough to set in an old barrel, with head and bottom out, leaving the top even with the surface. Fill with manure from the stable, well trod down. In fine rich mould, around on the outside of the barrel, plant twenty or thirty cucumber-seeds. Put a pail of water in the barrel every day. The water comes up through the soil to the roots of the plants, bringing with it the stimulus of the manure, and the effect is wonderful. A large barrel has been filled with pickles from one such hill. If bushes be put up to support the vines, it is still better. Neglect to pour in water, and they will dry up; but continue to water them, and they will bear till frost in autumn.
CURRANTS.
These are among the very best of all the small fruits; immensely productive in all locations, and adapted to a great variety of uses, and hang long on the bushes after ripening.
There is quite a number of varieties, some of which are probably the mere result of cultivation of others well known. The common red is too well known to need description—very acid, and always remarkably productive, in all soils and situations. The size and quality of the fruit are affected by location and culture. The native currants, as found in the north of Europe, are small and inferior; but all excellent modern varieties have sprung from them by cultivation. In working these important changes, the Dutch and French gardeners have been the chief agents: hence our names, Red and White Dutch currants.
The common red and the common white are still cultivated in the great majority of American gardens; and yet, they are not worthy to be named with the White Dutch and the Red Dutch, which may easily be obtained by every cultivator. These two varieties are all that ever need be cultivated. Long lists of currants are described in many of the fruit-books; the result, as in all such cases, is confusion and loss to the mass of growers. We will not even give the list. The common red and the white currants are greatly improved by cultivation. But the Dutch have longer bunches, of larger fruit, the lower ones in the stem holding their size much better than common currants; the stems are usually full and perfect, and the fruit less acid and more pleasant.
A new, strong-growing variety, called the "cherry currant" on account of its large size, is now considerably grown. A few bushes for variety, and for their beautiful appearance, may be well enough; but it is not a very good bearer, and therefore is not so profitable as the Dutch.
The Attractor is a new French variety, said to be valuable. Knight's Early Red has the single virtue of ripening a few days earlier than the others. The Victoria is perhaps the latest of all currants, hanging on the bushes fully two weeks longer than others. The White Grape, the Red Grape, and the Transparent, are all good and beautiful. The utilitarian will cultivate the Red Dutch and the White Dutch as his main crop, with two or three of the others for a variety. The amateur will get all the varieties, and amuse himself by comparing their qualities, and trying his skill at modifying them. As these efforts have resulted, in past time, in the production of our best varieties, so they may, in future, in something far better than we yet have. There is no probability that any of our fruits have reached the acme of perfection.
The common black, or English black currant has long been cultivated. A jam made of it is valuable for sore throat. The highest medical authority pronounces black currant wine the best, in many cases of sickness, of any wine known. The Black Naples possesses the same virtues, and being a much larger fruit, and more productive, should take the place of the English black, and exclude it from all gardens.
Cultivation.—Currant-bushes should be set four feet apart each way, and the whole ground thoroughly mulched; it keeps down all weeds and grass, saving all further labor in cultivation, and greatly increases the size and quantity of the fruit. On nothing does mulching pay better. (See article Mulching.)
Any good garden-soil is suitable for currants. On the north side of a wall or building, or in the shade of trees, they will be considerably later. The same effect may be produced by covering bushes a part of the time with blankets or mats. Some are retarded by this means, so as to be in perfection after others are gone: thus, the currant that naturally comes to perfection about midsummer is preserved on the bushes until October.
Many cultivate currants in the tree form; allowing no sprouts from the roots, and no branches within a foot or two of the ground. This object is secured by cutting from the slip you are to plant, from which to raise a bush, all the lower buds to within two or three of the top, and then pinching off at once all shoots that may start out of the stem below; this makes beautiful little shrubs, but the top is apt to be broken off by the wind, and they must be replaced by new ones every four or five years. Downing strongly recommends it, but we can not do so. Let bushes grow in the natural way, removing all old, decaying branches, and all suckers that rise too far from the parent-bush, and keep the clusters of bushes and leaves thin enough to allow the sun free access, and prevent continued moisture in wet weather, which will rot the fruit, and you will find it the cheapest and best. We have seen quite as large and as fine fruit grow on such bushes, that we knew to be more than twenty years old, as we ever saw of the same variety when cultivated in the tree form.
DAIRY.
For cheese, the dairy should contain three rooms: one for setting the milk, with suitable boilers, &c.; next, a press-room, in which the cheese should be salted, as given under article Cheese; the third, a store-room. In all climates a cheese-house should be made as tight as possible;—thick stone walls are best; windows should be on two sides, north and west, but not on opposite sides, so as to create a draught: this is no better for cheese or butter, and is always dangerous to the operator. Let all persons who would enjoy good health avoid a draught of air as they would an arrow. If your cheese-house can be shaded on the east, south, and west, by trees, and have only a northern exposure, it will aid you much in guarding against extremes of heat and cold. Windows should be fitted closely, and covered with wire-cloth on the outside, so as to exclude all flies.
A dairy for butter needs but two rooms, and a cool, dry cellar, with windows in north and west. The first room should be for setting and skimming the milk, and the other for churning and working the butter, and scalding and cleaning the utensils. If your milk-room can be a spring-house with stone-floor, and a little water passing over it, you will find it a great benefit. The shade, situation of windows, avoiding a current, &c., should be the same as in the cheese-dairy.
To prevent the taste of turnips or other food of cows in milk and butter, put one quart of hot water into eight quarts of the milk just drawn from the cow, and strain it at once. It has been recently declared, by intelligent farmers, that if you feed the turnips to cows immediately after milking, the next milking, twelve hours after feeding the roots, will be free from their taste or odor. The easiest remedy is the boiling water.
DECLENSION OF FRUITS.
That there are instances of decided decline in the quality of fruits is certain. But on the causes of those changes pomologists do not agree. One theory is, that fruits, like animals and vegetables of former ages, may decline and finally become extinct. Should this theory be established, the declension would be so gradual that a century would make no perceptible change. But we do not credit the theory, even as applied to former geological periods in the history of our globe. The changes of past ages, as revealed in geology, have been brought about, not gradually, but by great convulsions of nature, such as volcanoes, or the deluge, that resulted in the destruction of the old order of things, and in a new creation.
The true theory of this declension of varieties of fruits, is, that it is the result of repeated budding upon unhealthy stocks, and of neglect and improper cultivation. Apply the specific manures—that is, those particularly demanded by a given fruit—prune properly, mulch well, and bud or graft only on healthy seedling stocks of the same kind, and, instead of declension, we may expect our best fruits to improve constantly, in quality and quantity.
DILL.
An herb, native in the south of Europe, and on the Cape of Good Hope. It is grown, particularly at the South, as a medicinal herb. The leaves are sometimes used for culinary purposes; but it is principally cultivated for its sharp aromatic seed, used for flatulence and colic in infants, and put into pickled cucumbers to heighten the flavor. The seeds may be sown early in the spring, or at the time of ripening. A light soil is best. Clear of weeds, and thin in the rows, are the conditions of success.
DRAINS.
Drains are of two kinds—under-drains and surface-drains. The latter are simply open ditches to carry off surface-water, that might otherwise stand long enough to destroy the prospective crop. These are frequently useful along at the foot of hills, when they should be proportioned to the extent of the surface above them. They are also very useful on low, level meadow-lands. Properly constructed, they will reclaim low swamps, and make them excellent land. Millions of acres of land in the United States, as good as any we have, are lying useless, and spreading pestilence around, that by this simple method of ditching might be turned to most profitable account. The direction of these drains should be determined by the shape of the land to be drained by them—straight whenever they will answer the purpose, but crooked when they will do better. On low and very level land, they should be not more than five rods apart; they should be three times as wide at the top as they are at the bottom, and as deep as the width at the top; made so slanting, the sides will not fall in;—they should be so shaped as to allow only a very gentle flow of the water: if it flows too rapidly, it will wash down the sides, and obstruct the ditch, and waste the land. Excavations for under-draining are made in the same way, only the top need not be so much wider than the bottom; it would be a waste of labor in excavating a useless quantity of earth. There are four methods of filling up the ditch, viz., with brush; with small stones thrown in promiscuously; with a throat laid in the bottom and filled with small stones; and with a throat made of tile from the pottery. In all cases, that with which the ditch is filled must not come so near the surface as to be reached by the plow. Brush, put in green and covered with straw or leaves, will answer a good purpose for several years, and may be used where small stones can not easily be obtained. The tile is more expensive than either of the others, and not so good as the stones; it is so tight that the water does not enter it so readily; and if by any chance dirt gets into the throat, it obstructs it, and there is no other channel through which the water can pass off. Small stones thrown in promiscuously serve a good purpose for a long time, if they be covered with straw or cornstalks before the earth is put in. But the best method is to make a throat, six inches square, in the bottom of the drain, laying the large stones over the top of it, and filling in the small stones above, and covering with straw;—the water will find its way into the throat through the numerous openings; and if the throat should ever be filled, the water could still pass off between the small stones above. Such drains will last many years, and add one half to the products of all wet springy land. The earth over the new drain should be six inches higher than the surface of the field, that, when well settled, it may be level. Leave no places open for surface-water to run in; that would soon fill up and ruin a drain. Drains made to carry off spring-water are often useless by being in a wrong location. Springs come out near the foot of rising ground. Just where they come out should be the location of the drain, which would then carry off the water and prevent it from saturating and chilling the soil in the field below. Many persons locate their ditch down in the centre of the wet level below the rise of ground; this is of no use to the surface above, to the point where the water springs. Locate the drain just at the point where the land begins to be unduly wet. On very wet, level land, a small drain may also be needed below the first and main one. The cost of a covered drain as described above will be from fifty to seventy-five cents per rod, and an uncovered one will cost from twenty to thirty cents. When you have low swamps to drain, you can realize more than the cost of draining, by carting the excavations upon other land, or into the barnyard as material for compost. Perhaps no expenditure, on land needing it, pays so well as thorough draining. It is important, for all fruit-orchards on low land, to put a drain through under each row of trees: it is indispensable to cherries, and highly favorable to all other fruits.
DUCKS.
There are a number of varieties, the wild Black Spanish, the Canvass-Back, and the ordinary little duck of the farmyard, are all good. The common duck is the only one we recommend for the American poultry-yard. A close pasture, including a rivulet, or a small stream of water, affords facilities for raising ducks at a cheap rate. From one hundred to one thousand ducks may be raised in such an enclosure of an acre or two, quite profitably. If there is plenty of grass, they will still need a little grain. In the winter the cheapest feed is beets or potatoes cut fine, with a very little grain. Each duck, well kept, will lay from fifty to one hundred eggs, larger than hen's eggs, and about as good for cooking purposes. They may be picked as geese, for live feathers, though not quite so frequently. The feathers will nearly pay for keeping, leaving the eggs and increase as profit.
DWARFING.
This has some advantages in its application to fruit-trees. It will enable the cultivator to raise more fruit on a small plat of ground, to get fruit much earlier than from standard trees, and sometimes, with high cultivation, the fruit will be larger. Dwarfing is done by grafting into small slow-growing stocks. Almost all fruits have such kinds. Grafting into other stocks, as the pear into the foreign quince, is a very effectual method. The Paradise stock for the apple, the Canada and other slow-growing stocks for the plum, the dwarf wild cherry of Europe and the Mahaleb for cherries. Dwarfs produced by grafting upon other stocks are short-lived, compared with standards of the same varieties. They should only be used to economize room, to test varieties, and produce fruit while standards are coming into bearing.
Better and much longer-lived dwarfs may be produced by frequent transplanting, thorough trimming of the roots, and repeated heading-in. The fruit on such dwarfs must be well thinned out when young, or it will be smaller than is natural. The effect of heading in is to cause the sap to mature an abundance of fruit-buds. This will tax the tree too much, unless they be well thinned out. Root-pruning is an effectual method of dwarfing (see Pruning). Dwarfing by root-pruning, repeated transplanting, and thorough heading-in, will not render the trees very short-lived, and in many situations it is profitable. The same is true of the dwarf pear on the quince. All other dwarfing is more for the amateur than the utilitarian.
EARLY FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
Are often considered a great luxury, and always command a high price. Early vegetables are secured by hotbeds and the various methods of forcing, as given under the different species. Early fruits are obtained by dwarfing, as given on that subject. Location, soil, and mode of cultivation, also, have much to do with it. Warm location, finely-pulverized soil, often stirred and kept moist, will materially shorten the time of the maturity of fruits and vegetables. Seeds imported from the North, where seasons are shorter, will mature earlier. Another means of hastening maturity is to plant successively, from year to year, the very first that ripens; this tends to dwarf in proportion as the time of maturity is hastened. In this way such dwarfs as the little Canada corn, that will mature at the South in six weeks, have been produced. Various early plants, as tomatoes, cabbages, peppers, and egg-plants, may be started in boxes or flower-pots in the house. Planted in February here, or in January in the South, they will grow as well as house-plants, and acquire considerable size before it is time to place them in the open ground. This is convenient for those who have no hotbeds. They must be kept from frost, and occasionally set out in a warm day to harden, and they will do well.
EGG PLANT.
The white is merely ornamental. The large purple is one of the greatest luxuries of the vegetable garden. Plant seeds in hotbed at the time of planting tomatoes or peppers. Set out in land made very rich with stable-manure and decayed forest-leaves, two feet and a half apart each way. Kept clean, and earthed up a little, and the bugs kept off while the plants are small, they will produce an abundance of fruit. There are two varieties of the purple—large prickly-stem purple, growing sometimes eight inches in diameter; and the long purple, bearing smaller, long fruit, but a large quantity, and considerably earlier than the large. Many do not like them at first; but after tasting a few times, almost all persons become very fond of them. If not properly cooked, they are not at all palatable. Although it belongs to the cook-book, yet, to save this excellent plant from condemnation, we give a recipe for cooking it. It is fit for use from one third grown, until the seeds begin to turn. Without paring, cut the fruit into slices one third of an inch thick; put it in a little water with plenty of salt, and let it stand over night, or six hours at least; take it out, and fry very soft and brown in butter or fresh lard—if not fried soft and brown, it is disagreeable. Salt, ashes, and bonedust, or superphosphate of lime, are the best manures, as more than two thirds of the fruit is made up of potash, soda, and phosphates, as shown by chemical analysis.
EGGS.
Of the quality of eggs you can always judge correctly by looking at them toward the light: if they are translucent they are good; if they look dark they are old—or you may get a chicken, when you only paid for an egg.
Many methods for preserving eggs are recommended. Packed away in fine salt they will keep, but, like salt meat, have not the same flavor as fresh. Set them on their small ends in a tight cask, and fill it with pure lime-water, and they will keep, but it changes their flavor. This, however, is a very common method. The best way known to us, is to pack fresh eggs down in Indian meal, allowing no two to touch each other. Keep very dry in a cool cellar, and they will remain for months unchanged.
ELDERBERRY.
This is a healthy berry, dried and used for making pies, especially mixed with some other fruit. The blossoms are much used as medicine for small children. The common sweet elder is the only kind cultivated. The earlier red are offensive and poisonous. They are easily grown on rough waste land, or in any situation you prefer. Of this berry is made a wine, superior in flavor and effect to any port wine now to be obtained in market; it has had the preference among the best judges in the country;—it is fast coming into notice and cultivation. The wine is so entirely superior to the poisonous substances of that name in commerce, that it would be well for every neighborhood to make enough for their sick. The process is sure and easily intelligible to all. (See article Wine.)
ENDIVE.
This is a well-known winter-lettuce. Sow from July to September, according to latitude. It should come into maturity at the time of the first smart frosts. To get beautiful, white, tender bunches, they should be tied up when the leaves are about six inches long. When frost comes, protect by covering. In very cold climates, place it in the cellar, with the roots in moist earth, and it will keep for a long time. It will not be extensively used in this country for soups and stews, as it is in Europe; and but few of the American people care much about winter-lettuce. This is the best variety of lettuce, except for those who have hot-houses and attend to winter-gardening. They will prefer the other finer varieties. There are two varieties of endive cultivated in this country: green curled, which is the most common, and used principally as a salad; the broad-leaved, or Batavian, has thicker leaves and large heads, and is principally used in stews and soups. Still another variety, called succory, which is used to some extent in Europe as a winter-salad, but is cultivated mainly for the root. It is dried and ground to mix with coffee: some consider it quite as good. This is more cultivated at the South than at the North—their winters are much better adapted to it. The medicinal virtues of this plant are nearly equal to those of the dandelion. When it is bleached, by tying or earthing up, the bitterness is removed, and the taste is pleasant; this must be done when the plants are dry, or they will rot. Plant them in a sunny place and in a light soil.
FEEDING ANIMALS.
Feed as nearly as possible at the same hours. All creatures do much better for being so fed. Do not feed domestic animals too much: animals will be more healthy, grow faster, and fatten better, by being fed almost, but not quite as much as they will eat. Giving food to lie by them is poor economy; always let them eat it all up, and desire a little more;—at the same time, let it be remembered that creatures kept very poorly for a considerable time, especially while young, will never fully recover from it. This is often done under the idea of keeping them cheap, but it is dear keeping. They never can make as fine animals afterward.
All grains and vegetables, except beets and turnips, are better for being boiled or steamed. The increased value is much more than the cost of cooking, provided persons are not so careless as to allow food to be injured by standing after cooking. Cooking is supposed to add one fourth to the value of food. Grinding dry grains adds nearly as much to their value, as feed for animals, as cooking. If you neither grind nor boil hard grain for feed, it will pay well to soak it somewhat soft before feeding. Variety of food is as pleasant and healthy for animals as for men.
FENCES.
These are matters of great importance to the farmers of the whole country, but especially to those on the prairies of the west.
In all localities where stone can be obtained from the fields or quarry, the best and cheapest fence is a stone wall. If the stones are flat, make the wall two feet thick at bottom, and one at top, five feet high. If the stones are very irregular the wall should be thicker. Stone walls should have transverse rows of shingles, boards, or split sticks, about half an inch thick, laid in the wall at suitable distances. If stones are quite flat three rows are desirable, one two, the next three, and the other four feet from the ground. If the wall is made of rough stones it will require one more course of sticks, leaving them only a foot apart. The sticks should be of such lengths as to come out just even with the wall, on each side. The lower courses will be longer than the upper ones. These sticks are to keep the wall from falling down. Dig a ditch one foot deep, two feet from the wall, and throw the earth excavated up against the wall, and the water will run off and prevent heaving by frost, and such a wall will need the merest trifle of attention during a generation, and will last for centuries. A cord of stones will make one rod. We can not too strongly recommend this kind of fence, in all places where stones can be obtained reasonably. The pieces of wood laid in a wall, will keep well for thirty years, when they will need replacing. Next to stone is a good board fence. Well made and of good materials, it is durable and always in its place. Hence it is a cheap fence.
Of the various styles of picket, and other fancy fences for front yards, &c., it is more the province of the architect or the mechanic to treat. Styles vary and are constantly increasing in number. The great point to be secured in all such, to render them most durable, is to have the smallest possible points of contact. A picket fence with horizontal base should never have the pickets standing on the base board. They should be separated, from one quarter to one half an inch. A good style for villages, is a cap, water tight, and wide enough to cover the ends of the posts and pickets with a neat little cornice. It looks well and is very durable.
In all localities where timber is not too valuable, a cheap and substantial fence is made of split rails. The crooked rail-fence, with stakes and riders, is well known. Also that with upright stakes and caps, which is decidedly preferable. It will stand much longer, and the stakes are out of the way. No farmer should ever risk his crop with a rail-fence without stakes. But the best of all rail-fences, is that made of posts and rails. The rails are put in as bars, but so firmly that the fence can not be taken down, without commencing at the end. Where cedar or locust posts, and oak or cedar rails can be obtained, a fence may be made that will not get out of repair for twenty-five years. No creature can tear it down, for human hands can not take it down without tools, or without commencing at the end. This is considered expensive. But as the farmer may prepare his posts and rails in winter, and it will require no attention to keep it up, and is very durable and perfectly effectual against cattle, it is an economical fence. For hedges, see that article.
FENNEL.
This is a hardy perennial plant of Southern Europe, and belongs to both the culinary and the medicinal departments. It grows well on almost any soil, and is propagated by seeds, offshoots, or by parting the roots. It is much inclined to spread. A few roots, kept within reasonable bounds, are enough for a family. It is much used in Europe for soups, salads, and garnishes. The Italians treat it as celery. In this country it is mostly used medicinally. It is stimulant and carminative. Very beneficial to children in cases of flatulency and colic.