HOEING
Much depends upon the proper and timely use of the hoe. Never let weeds press you; hoe at proper times, and you never will have any large weeds. As soon as vegetables are up, so that you can do it safely, hoe them. The more frequent the hoeing while plants are young, the larger will be the crop. Premium crops are always hoed very frequently. Hoeing cabbages, corn, and similar smooth plants, when it rains slightly, is nearly equal to a coat of manure. But beans, potatoes, and vines, and whatever has a rough stalk, are much injured by stirring the ground about them while they are wet, or even much damp. We have known promising crops of vines nearly destroyed by hoeing when wet. Hoeing near the roots of vines after they have formed runners one or two feet long, will also nearly ruin them;—the same is true of onions: hoe near them, cutting off the lateral roots, and you will lessen the crop one half. In hoeing, make no high hills except for sweet potatoes. High hilling up originated in England, where their cool, humid, cloudy atmosphere demands it, to secure more warmth. In this country we have to guard more against drought and heat.
HOPS
These are native in this country, being found, growing spontaneously, by many of our rivers. There are four or five varieties, but no preference has been given to any particular one. Moist, sandy loam is the best soil, though good hops may be grown in abundance on any land suitable for corn or potatoes. Plow the land quite deep in autumn; in the spring, harrow the same way it was plowed. Spread evenly over the surface sixteen cords of manure to the acre, if your soil be of ordinary richness; cross-plow as deep as the first plowing; furrow out as for potatoes, four feet apart each way. Plant hops in every other hill of every other row, making them eight feet apart each way. Plant all the remaining hills with potatoes. Four cuttings of running roots of hops should be planted in each hill. Many hop-yards are unproductive on account of being too thick;—less than eight feet each way deprives the vines of suitable air and sun, and prevents plowing them with ease. The first year, they only need to be kept clean of weeds by hoeing them with the potatoes. In the fall of the first year, to prevent injury from hard frosts, put a large shovelful of good manure on the top of each hill. Each spring, before the hops are opened, spread on each acre eight cords of manure; coarse straw manure is preferable. Plow both ways at first hoeing. They require three hoeings, the last when in full bloom in the beginning of August. Open the hops every spring by the middle of May; at the South, by the last of April. This is done by making four furrows between the rows, turning them from the hills; the earth is then removed from the roots with a hoe, and all the running roots cut in with a sharp knife within two inches of the main roots. The tops of the main roots must also be cut in, and covered with earth two inches deep. Set the poles on the first springing of the vines; never have more than two poles in a hill, or more than two vines on a pole, and no pole more than sixteen feet high. Neglect this root-pruning, and multiply poles and crowd them with vines, and you will get very few hops. Select the most thrifty vines for the poles, and destroy all the others. Watch them during the summer, that they do not blow down from the poles. They must be picked as soon as they are ripe, and before frosts. The best picking-box is a wooden bin made of light boards, nine feet long, three feet wide, and two and a half feet deep; the poles are laid across this, and the hops picked into it by hand. In gathering hops, cut the vines two feet from the ground, that bleeding may not injure the roots.
Curing is the most important matter in hop-growing. Hops would all be of one quality, and bring the first price, if equally well cured. The following description (with slight abbreviation) of the process of curing, by William Blanchard, Esq., is, perhaps, as complete as anything that can be obtained. Much depends upon having a well-constructed kiln. For the convenience of putting the hops on the kiln, a side hill is generally chosen for its situation; it should be a dry situation. It should be dug out the same bigness at the bottom as at the top; the side walls laid up perpendicularly, and filled in solid with stone to give it a tunnel form: twelve feet square at the top, two feet square at the bottom, and at least eight feet deep, is deemed a convenient size. On the top of the walls sills are laid, having joists let into them, as for laying a floor, on which laths, about one and a half inches wide, are nailed, leaving open spaces between them three fourths of an inch, over which a thin linen cloth is spread and nailed at the edges to the sills. A board about twelve inches wide is set up on each side of the kiln, on the inner edge of the sill, to form a bin to receive the hops. Fifty pounds, after they are dry, is all such a kiln will hold at once. The larger the stones made use of in the construction of the kiln the better, as it will give a more steady and dense heat. The inside of the kiln should be well plastered with mortar to make it air-tight. Charcoal is the best fuel. Heat the kiln well before putting on the hops; keep a steady and regular heat while drying. Hops must not remain in bulk long after being picked, as they will heat and spoil. Do not stir them while drying. After they are thoroughly dry, remove them into a dry room, and lay in heaps, and not stir unless they are gathering dampness that will change their color; then spread them. This will only occur when they have not been properly dried. They are bagged by laying cloth into a box, so made that it can be removed, and give opportunity to sew up the bag while in the press. The hops are pressed in by a screw. In bulk they will sweat a little, which will begin to subside in about eight days, at which time they should be bagged. If they sweat much and begin to change their color, they must be dried before bagging. The best size for bags is about two hundred and fifty pounds' weight, in a bag about five feet long. Common tow-cloth or Russia-hemp bags are best. Extensive hop-growers build houses over the kiln, that they may be able to use them in wet weather. In this case, keep the doors open as much as possible without letting in the rain. Dried without sufficient air, their color is changed, and their quality and market-value injured. These houses are made much larger than the kiln, in many instances, for the convenience of storing and bagging the hops when dry; in this case, tight partitions should separate the storerooms from the kiln, to avoid dampness from the drying hops.
The form of manuring recommended is contrary to the old practice of putting a little manure only in the hill: that practice exposed vines to decay and destruction by worms, and this does not; our system also produces hops equal to new land.
HORSE
This noble animal is in general use, and everywhere highly prized. By the last census, we see that there are two thirds as many horses as cows in the United States—4,335,358 horses, and over six millions of cows. But, valuable as is the horse, he suffers much ill treatment and neglect from his master. To give a history of the horse, the various breeds of different countries, and the efforts to improve them, would be interesting, did it fall within the limits of our design. The patronage of the kings and nobility of England has done much to elevate the horse to his present standard of excellence. It has now become the custom for intelligent gentlemen in rural districts, in all enlightened countries, to give much attention to the improvement of horses. Unfortunately, some of that enthusiasm is perverted to the channel of horse-racing, a practice alike injurious to horses and the morals of men. A few brief hints are all we have space for, where a volume would be interesting and useful. The farmer should exercise constant care to improve the breed of his horses: it pays best to raise good horses. This depends upon the qualities of the dam and sire, and upon proper feed and care. This is a subject that farmers should carefully study from books and from their own observation. The most important matter in raising horses, is care in working and feeding. Nineteen out of twenty of all sick horses are made so by bad treatment. The prevention of disease is better than cure. Steady, and even hard work, will not injure a horse that is well and regularly fed. But a few moments of crowding a horse's speed, or of an unnatural strain on his strength, may ruin him. Let it always be remembered that it is speed, and not heavy loads, that most injures a horse. A mile an hour too fast will soon run down your horse. A horse fed with grain, or watered, when warm, is liable to be foundered; and if not so fed as actually to be foundered, he will gradually grow stiff. Horses are liable to take cold by any unreasonable exposure to the weather, in the same circumstances as men, and the effects on health and comfort are very similar. A horse having become warm by driving, should never stand a minute without a blanket. When a man goes from a heated room, or in a perspiration, into inclement weather, he takes cold the moment the cold or storm strikes him: in a few moments the effects on the pores of the body are such that there is no particular exposure. It is so with a horse. He takes cold when you are only going to allow him to "stand but a minute," and during that time you leave him uncovered.
If you are under the necessity of doing an unusual day's work with a horse, do not feed him heavily on that day. Unusual feed the day before and the day after will do him good; but on the day of excessive work it injures him. Never feed horses too much; they will often eat one third more than is good for their health. Keep the bottom of the trough in which you feed your horses grain, plastered over with a mixture of equal parts of salt and ashes, that they may eat a little of it when they please. When the water of your horse becomes thick and yellowish, or whitish, give him a piece of rosin as large as a walnut, pulverized and put in his grain. If a horse has the heaves, give him no hay or oats; corn, ground or soaked, should be his only grain, and green corn-fodder in summer, and cornstalks, cut fine, with a little warm water on them, mixed with meal, should constitute his only food. All except a few of the most confirmed and long-standing cases of heaves are entirely relieved by this course of feeding, and that relief is permanent as long as the feed is continued, and it frequently effects a cure so radical that the disease will not return on a change of food. To bring up horses that have had hard usage and poor feed, and to secure growth in colts, feed them milk. The milk of a butter-dairy is not more profitably used in any other way, than fed to horses and colts. Give them no water for two or three days, and they will readily learn to drink all the sour, thick milk you will give them. Colts will grow faster on milk than on any other food.
Horses should be often rubbed down and kept clean, and when put in the stable wet, they should be rubbed dry. It is very essential to the health of a horse that he have pure air. Stables in this country are usually airy enough. But if the stable be tight, it should be well ventilated. The gases from a wet stable floor are injurious. Disinfecting agents are good remedies; a little plaster-of-Paris spread over a stable-floor is very useful. These brief directions, followed, will prevent most of the diseases to which horses are subject; or in case a horse be attacked, he will have the disease lightly, as temperate men do epidemics.
HORSERADISH
This is regarded a healthy condiment, especially in the spring of the year. Grated, with a little vinegar, it may be eaten with any food you choose. Small shavings of the root are esteemed in mangoes. When steeped in vinegar for two weeks, it is said effectually to remove freckles from the face. Any pieces of the roots will grow in any good garden-soil. Larger and better roots may be produced, by trenching the bed two feet deep, and putting in the bottom, ten inches of good manure, and planting selected roots, about six inches deep.
HOTBEDS
These are designed to force an early growth of plants. It is done by the use of solar heat, and that arising from fermenting manures, combined. The following directions for constructing and managing hotbeds will enable every one to be successful. Nail boards on pieces of scantling placed in the inside corners, in the form of a box, sixteen feet long and six feet wide; make it three and a half feet high on the back-side, and two feet high in front, facing the sun; nail a piece of board across the middle, let in at the top, to prevent the box from spreading when filled. Fill that with good, fresh horse-manure, with but little straw; tread it down firmly. Put over the whole, sashes made with cross-pieces but one way, and filled with glass, lapped half an inch, like shingles on a roof, to carry off the rain; putty in the glass lightly, or it may adhere to fresh-painted frames; let the frames be halved on their edges, so as to lap and be tight; put these over the filled hotbed, perfectly fitted all around, and enough of them to cover the whole bed; in two or three days the manure will become pretty warm, when it should be covered, four inches deep, with rich mould, sheltered for the purpose the previous fall, and the seeds planted. When the plants come up, see that they are kept sufficiently moist, and not have the hot sun pour upon them intensely, and they will grow rapidly; when too warm, they should be partly covered with mats, and the frames raised to let in air. Put small wedges between the sash and the boards, which will let in sufficient air. Keep it closed when the air is cold, and covered with mats when the sun is too hot. Plants are often destroyed by over-heating. When in danger of freezing, cover closely with mats or straw, or both. We have had plants growing in such a bed when the thermometer stood eight degrees below zero. If the heat of the manure subsides too early, pack fresh horse-manure all around the outside of the box, and as it heats it will communicate warmth to the inside of the bed. As plants grow up, transplant a part to a fresh bed, so as to give all a chance to grow stocky and strong. Almost everything that grows in the garden may be forwarded greatly in the hotbed. Vines, beets, tomatoes, cabbages, peppers, egg-plants, celery, beans, corn, and potatoes, may be obtained much earlier by this means. Those that are injured most by transplanting should be planted in the hotbed, on inverted sods, or grass turfs, six inches square, which can be removed with the growing plants on them, without seriously disturbing the roots. Plenty of shade and moisture on transplanting will save the most tender plants, and they will speedily recover. Make a hotbed of any size you may desire on the same principle. The boards and frames will last many years, with proper care, and occasional supply of a broken light of glass. Into such sash, broken glass of any size can be put, by cutting it to a proper width in one direction, no matter how far the points lap.
HOUSES
It is not our design to give an extended view of rural architecture. But this work can not be complete without a brief notice of farm-buildings, and a few plans for such buildings, adapted to the wants of those possessing limited means. We hope these directions and plans will prove important aids in getting up cheap, yet convenient and beautiful, country residences, especially in all the newer parts of the country. Our reading on rural architecture, and an extensive observation in many states of the Union, have made us acquainted with nothing, combining beauty, cheapness, and utility, better than the following.
The scale at the bottom will enable any mechanic to determine the size of each of these buildings, and their relation to each other. They can, on the same general plan, be made of any dimensions, to suit the wishes of the proprietor.
The wagon-house in the range is forty feet long, affording ample shelter for all kinds of vehicles, connected by a covered way with the horse-stables and barn-floor.
Range of Farm-Buildings.
A lean-to is built on the north side of the wagon-house, in which is a tool-house opening into it, and a stable for eight milch-cows, that will thus be convenient for winter-milking; these cows are fed from the loft over the wagon-house. The barn is thirty by forty feet, with floor in the middle and bay on each side: this can be driven into on one side and out on the other. From the floor is a covered way to cattle and horse stables, and into the wagon and tool house, without going outdoor.
The Piggery.—Large and small swine do not do so well together; hence, the larger ones are to occupy the feeding-pen and bed on the right (in the cut), those of medium size on the left, and the smaller ones in the rear. The dimensions and relative size of apartments can be determined from the plan.
The other buildings sufficiently explain themselves in the cut.
Ground-plan of Piggery.
With this range of buildings, let a farmer do his own thrashing, with a small horse-power, and thrash a part at a time during the winter, keeping the straw in an apartment in the bay, dry for litter, and for cut feed for cattle and horses, and it will be the best and most economical method of thrashing and keeping stock. Every farmer should do at least a part of his thrashing in this way, during the winter, for the benefit of fresh straw, &c.
Country Residence.—This includes the range of buildings given opposite, their distance from the house, and all the parts of a complete residence, with all the comforts and conveniences that can be crowded into such a space, and at a very reasonable expense. Three fourths of an acre are devoted to the ornamental grounds; except the walks and small flower-beds, it is all green turf. Plowed very deep and thoroughly enriched, the trees are set out, and all then made very level, and one and a half bushels grass-seed sown on it and brushed in very smooth. This soon makes a very thick green turf, to be cut every ten days during the most growing season, and less frequently as the season advances. The trees, for a few years, need careful working around and mulching. The gravel carriage-road is twelve feet wide, and winding around shrubbery, it leads to the carriage-house in the range of buildings. The foot-walks are five feet wide. The curves in the walks may be accurately laid out in the following manner. Determine the general position by a few points measured off. Lay a pole upon the ground, in the direction of the walk; stick a peg in the ground at the first end and at its middle; move the pole round a little, leaving the middle the same,—then stick a peg at its end, and move it forward—moving it forward and round equally, each time, by measurement. A longer or shorter curve is made by a greater or less side-movement of the pole. In a regular curve, the movements are the same; but in going from a shorter to a longer, or from a longer to a shorter curve, the side-measurement must increase or diminish regularly.
Country Residence, Farm Buildings, Grounds, and Fruit-Gardens.
Laying out Curves.
First floor. Chambers.
Summer-house.
The following cuts show the plan of the house: three principal rooms and a bed-room below, and four rooms above. The hall extends through the house, affording good ventilation in summer, and entrance to each room, without passing through another. The chimney in the centre economizes heat. This small and cheap house affords more conveniences than most large ones. One of the finest things about such a house is a good cellar. For a farm-house, the cellar should be under the whole; make it eight feet deep, gravel and water lime made smooth on the bottom, flagging under the bottom of the wall extending out a foot, the wall above ground built double, the inside four inches thick, with brick, with a space of two inches, and outside stone wall a foot thick. The windows should be double and well fitted, the inside one hung on hinges; the outside one to be removed in spring, and its place supplied with a well-fitted frame, covered with wire-cloth to admit air and exclude intruders during summer. This will not freeze, and never need banking. No rat can enter, for they always work close to the wall, and coming to the projecting flat stone at the bottom, they give it up. On one side of the cellar, under the kitchen, make a large rain-water cistern, with a pump in the kitchen and a faucet in the cellar, and the whole arrangement is perfect. If the farm be large, you will need some of the good, but cheap houses described in the following part of this article, where your men will live and board themselves, which is always the best and cheapest way. An open view from the house in the country residence extends to the summer-house (b) on the right. This is one of the neatest cheap summer-houses that can be made. The following directions for making it may be useful. Set eight cedar posts, six inches in diameter, in the ground, in a circle; saw them off even at the top, and connect them by plank nailed on their tops. Make an eight-sided roof of boards; nail lath from post to post, forming lattice-work, leaving a space between two posts for a door. Put a seat around on the inside. Leave all the materials except the seat unplaned, and cover with a white or brown wash, and it need not cost more than five or six dollars, and, covered with vines of some kind, it will be ornamental.
Laborer's Cottage.
Plan of Laborer's Cottage.
This form of a cheap house is convenient and pleasant. Built of four-inch scantling, the plates and sills being connected only by the upright plank, and the wings thoroughly bracing the upright posts; when lumber is cheap, it may be built for one hundred and fifty or two hundred dollars, with cellar, well, and cistern. Occasional whitewash is as good as paint. With cellar under the whole, filled in with brick, and having blinds, it may cost three hundred and fifty dollars. The plan of the house sufficiently explains itself.
The next cut illustrates a neat country-house, for a family who think more of neatness, comfort, and intellectual pursuits, than of mere ornament, and may serve the purpose of a farmhouse, or the residence of a retired or professional gentleman. It has the unconstrained air of the Italian style, without a rigid adherence to any rules, and may therefore be altered or added to without destroying its effect.
Italian Farmhouse.
Plan of Italian Farm House.
The plan is intelligible without explanation. Built in a plain way, the four large rooms not larger than fifteen by seventeen, and ten feet high, plain in its finish, it would cost about sixteen hundred dollars complete. It may go up from that, according to size and height of rooms, and style of finish, to three thousand dollars. It then makes as good a house as any person ever need to occupy, out of great cities.