No. 1. 



Spirit of the Agricultural Press. 



31 



SPIRIT OF THE AGRICULTURAL PRESS, 



BOTH AT HOME AND ABROAD. 



IMPORTANCE OP AGRICULTURE. 



The GREAT BUSINESS of OUT country is 

 AGRICULTURE. 1. Because it feeds us, and 

 furnishes the materials for our clothing. 

 2. Because it gives useful employment to 

 live-sixths of our population. 3. Because it 

 is tiie primary source of our individual and 

 national wealth. 4. Because it is the nurs- 

 ing mother of our manufactures and com 

 merce ; as neither would prosper or long ex- 

 ist without it. 5. Because it is essential to 

 national independence. From this view, 

 (which is undoubtedly a correct one,) it will 

 be seen that agriculture is the g[i'ea,t busi- 

 ness of the American nation. That it is 

 worthy the most liberal patronage of our 

 governments, state and national — that it ought 

 to bo enlightened by a better (and thorough) 

 education of the agricultural class — that it 

 ought to be encouraged and rewarded by 

 public bounties or rewards — that it ought to 

 be respected from its highly salutary influ- 

 ence upon our republican institutions, and 

 upon the good order of society; and, finally, 

 that it ought to be honored, at least accord 

 ing to its intrinsic merits, that it may be more 

 followed, by men who have minds, as well as 

 hands, to accelerate its improvement. — Culti- 

 vator. 



The use of Sulphur in preserving plants 

 from insects, is recommended by Dr. Mease, 

 in the Domestic Encyclopedia. The recom- 

 mendation is endorsed by the editor of the 

 Cultivator in his last number. He states 

 that dusted upon grapes, in the grape-house, 

 they have prevented mildew upon the fruit. 

 " It is equally eSicacious in the open ground, 

 till the sulphur is washed or blown off. For 

 many years, we have lost most of our early 

 cabbages by a maggot which preyed upon the 

 stem underground. By mixing sulphur with 

 the grout in which the roots of the plants are 

 dipped before planting, the evil has been 

 wholly prevented ; and if the plants are 

 plunged deep in the grout, so as to coat the 

 base of the leaf stems, they are protected 

 from the grub. If scattered upon the rows 

 of j'oung cabbages and radishes, before or 

 after they are up, it would probably be effi- 

 cacious in protecting both the tops and bot- 

 toms." 



GREEN CORN STALKS FOR FODDER. 



Where soiling, that is, feeding with cut 

 green food in summer, forms any part of farm 

 economy, we doubt not that corn, sown broad- 



cast for this purpose, may be made to form a 

 very profitable crop, either as a maindepend- 

 ance, or as auxiliary to short or spare pasture. 

 It gives the greatest burthen of green food, and 

 of as nutrient a quality as clover, though it 

 can hardly be made to yield a cutting befor^ 

 August. It might well come in after" clover, 

 as food for cows and pigs. Mr. Holt, of East 

 Haddam, Ct. has made some experiments in 

 raising corn in this way for soiling; and he 

 has found that sixteen square rods°of ground, 

 sown with gourd seed corn, the 12th June, 

 gave food and subsistence for a horse fifty 

 days, and thirty-three days for a cow. An 

 acre would in this way, he thinks, feed thirty 

 cows for a month. A small patch could not 

 fail to be serviceable on any dairy farm, tc 

 supply the deficiency of pasture in August 

 and September. — lb. 



HINT ON TRANSPLANTING. 



The common error in transplanting trees, 

 is not making the holes, or pits, for their re- 

 ception sufficiently broad and deep. The 

 roots require a mellow soil to strike down 

 and horizontally in; and if the earth under 

 and around them is left undisturbed and hard, 

 they cannot extend themselves for food, or 

 but very slowly; the plant consequently 

 grows but slowly, if it survives. The follow- 

 ing experiment, made by M. Chalermeau, 

 illustrates the importance of this hint. The 

 hole should not be proportioned to the extent 

 of the roots as they are, but to their extent 

 as they may be and should be. 



" Four peach trees, resembling each other 

 as to size and vigor of growth, as much as 

 possible, were planted. No. 1 in a hole three 

 feet square; No. 2 in a hole two feet square ; 

 and Nos. 3 and 4 in holes eighteen inches 

 square. The soil and exposition similar. No. 

 1 has every year given the most abundant 

 crops, and the relative sizes of the trees are 

 now as follows: the stem of No. 1, eighteen 

 feet high and eight inches in circumference ; 

 that of No. 2, nine feet high and five and a 

 half inches in circumference; No. 3, six feet 

 high and three inches eight lines in circum- 

 ference; and No. 4, five and a half feet high 

 and three inches in circumference." 



Showing a difference between No. 1 and 

 No. 4 — between large holes and small holes 

 — of five inches in circumference, and twelve 

 and a half feet in height. Apple, pear, and 

 forest trees, generally having a larger spread 

 of roots than the peach, require proportionally 

 larger holes. — lb. 



