66 



Rhiibarb- 



Thovghts on Farming. 



Vol. IV. 



Rhubarba 



Tliis excellent plant which should have a 

 place in every garden, is very easily raised, 

 requiring notliing more than a rich loamy sit- 

 uation. It is an orchard in miniature, the 

 stems of its leaves affording- a substance which 

 is an excellent substitute for apples, to make 

 sauce or pies. The sauce made from it, is 

 very wholesome and palatable, and will be a 

 good preventive of bowel complaints. It is 

 said that by stewing it with sugar and prepar- 

 ing it in the same manner as for the table, it 

 may be bottled and corked up tight and pre- 

 served till winter. Indeed, we cannot see 

 why it may not be kept as long as apple sauce, 

 or any of the berries that are preserved in this 

 way, without being bottled up. Some of our 

 good housewives, had better try the experi- 

 ment. — Maine Farmer. 



Thoughts ou Farming* 



I have based the following estimates on the 

 supposition that each acre of best parts of our 

 soil should be made to produce at least half 

 its greatest or maximum product; that whe- 

 ther we cultivate more or less it is the truest 

 economy to cultivate it well. What the 

 maximum product of particular spots in a par- 

 ticular town or village, may be, I do not, of 

 course, undertake to determme ; but the real 

 maximum product, so far as I know, in Eu- 

 rope or America, is 150 bushels of corn, and 

 1000 bushels potatoes, to the acre. 



I have supposed, I say, that each arable 

 acre of New England soil ought to be made 

 to produce at least half its maximum product ; 

 and that each tenth acre of land among us 

 ought to be cultivated with these. Each 

 tenth acre, therefore, among us, ought to be 

 made to produce 75 bushels of corn or 500 

 bushels of potatoes. This being premised, I 

 make the following references and conclu- 

 sions. 



If one-tenth of each square mile in this 

 country were cultivated as it ought to be with 

 corn or potatoes, the produce — admitting the 

 remaining nine-tenths to be sufficient for pas- 

 turage and other purposes — would sustain an 

 immense population. 



One-tenth of a square mile is 16 acres. 

 Now the produce of half of this in corn and 

 half in potatoes at the rate per acre I have 

 assumed above would be 1600 bushels of corn 

 and 16,000 bushels potatoes. Now ten bushels 

 of corn or forty of potatoes, properly cooked, 

 is an abundant supply of food to an individual, 

 upon the average, for a single year. Yet at 

 this rate each square mile should sustain a 

 population of 560 souls, and the wliole state 

 of Massachu>etts estimated as it is to con- 

 tain 4,614,000 acres of land, a population of 

 4,0f).S,:}60. And if the United States contain 

 witliin their territorial limits 2,000,000 square 



miles of land — and they probably do more 

 than this — one-tenth of it ought to be made 

 to sustain 1,200,000,000 inhabitants, or a popu- 

 lation much greater than that of the whole 

 world at the present time. Not even China 

 or Hindostan, taking the whole country to- 

 gether, sustain a population one-fourth as 

 great. — Dedham Pat. 



Hoeing Corn late \%'ill frequently protect 

 it from the Frost. 



A correspondent of the Maine Cultivator 

 writes, that it has been his custom when, in 

 the fall, there were indications of frost, and 

 his corn was in danger, not being ripe, to stir 

 the earth about one inch deep, with the hoe, 

 about the roots of the corn ; thus loosening 

 the surface, and thereby causing it the more 

 readily to absorb the rays of the sun, and pro- 

 duce more heat than it would produce if Ictt 

 undisturbed. He once had a piece of corn, 

 he says, of about three acres, nearly sur- 

 rounded with woods, and much exposed to 

 the frost. Before the corn was ripe there 

 was an appearance of frost, and he hoed it. 

 Upon that day and the following the sun 

 shone clearly upon it, and during the suc- 

 ceeding night there was a very severe frost. 

 On going to examine his corn, next morning, 

 he found it to be not at all injured, but covered 

 with a heavy dew, while the corn of his 

 neighbor, which had not been hoed, was stiff, 

 and consequently dead; and the fields and 

 fences all round whitened by the frost. By 

 this process he obtained a good crop, whilst 

 his neighbor's corn was entirely cutofi! The 

 editor of the Cultivator adds, " There is a 

 practical philosophy tor the reason of it. Stir- 

 ring the earth opens the pores; the conse- 

 quence is, a greater collection of moisture 

 upon the plants, which withstands frost." 



SAINFOIN. 



We see it stated as an evidence of the effi- 

 cacy of this grass, in the improvement of the 

 soil, that in the counties of Norfolk and Suf- 

 folk, England, it is found that poor sandy soils, 

 unfit for other culture, will, in sainfoin, pro- 

 duce, after the first year, about two tons of 

 excellent hay, per acre, for several years. A 

 great diversity of opinion prevails as to the 

 expediency of cultivating this grass exten- 

 sively. 



SEA-WEED. 



For the improvement of all lands in the 

 vicinity of tide-water, where it is washed 

 ashore, this is not only an inexliaustible, but 

 a most efficient source of improvement to the 

 soil. In Europe, where it is more highly 

 charged with saline matter than in most situa- 

 tions with us, its efncacy has been made most 

 manifest, and especially on light sandy land. 

 Any where, however, it would prove a salu- 

 tary agent of melioration. 



