THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



28 



the yard ; then rolled down well with a good big 

 roller, whicli every farmer ought to have. 



I steep my seed 24 hours in a strong brine, with 

 salt petre added if 1 have it— if kept cold it will not 

 hurt in soaking fifty hours — if kept warm, a few 

 hours will be suflicient. The change of tempera- 

 ture from a warm steep to a cold soil, is the cause 

 of a failure generally. I sliould not recommend a 

 steep at all if it was not for the worm and crow. I 

 think it a good antidot*' especially against the wire 

 worm. The crow will take but a few hills. 



I prefer planting close, say 3 feet by 2, and a less 

 quantity in the hill — three stalks is a plenty — any 

 over four will cause a failure. 



My next crop is oats — sown in .^pril, harrowed 

 well, then sown to clover and herds grass and roll- 

 ed well. I use the southern clover, which for me 

 is much the best, both for hay and seed. 



My third crop is clover and herds grass, as big as 

 I want. I apply one bushel of Plaster Paris per 

 acre, broadcast, in the spring. Mow the last of 

 June — add Plaster again, half a bushel per acre. 

 The second crop for seed or hay as I choose. An 

 average crop of seed is 150 lbs. — 300 an extreme 

 crop. 



My fourth crop will be corn again without ma- 

 nure. I add another bushel of Plaster broadcast 

 in April before plowing. Steep and plant as early 

 as the ground will admit — the earliest planted is 

 generally the best. Add anotlier bushel of Plaster 

 on the hill after the first hoeing. 



My lifth crop will be oats as before — seeded and 

 rolled in the same way. 



My sixth crop will be hay and seed with Plaster 

 as before. 



My seventh, corn loith manure as at first. 

 You will see by this course, that as I have 75 

 acres, I have 25 acres in each crop yearly, and that 

 1 am a'ale to manure from 12 to 25 acres yearly at 

 35 loads to the acre. 



Now I do not say this is the best course for all 

 lands, but I think it in for mine, and 1 am sure it is 

 for all land where there is little expense in chang- 

 ing from one crop to another. Some may think 

 the system may be improved by mowing two or 

 three years successively. I answer, in the first 

 place you would get a turf you could not subdue 

 by one year's hoeing, which is all-irnportant — in 

 the second place your land deteriorates — and third- 

 ly, you have a plenty of worms, which in a three 

 course system will rarely trouble you. 



I have followed the altenuilwn system, for the 

 last 22 years on the same land. Formerly I added 

 rye the third year, which made a four course sys- 

 tem ; but since tlie grain worm has come, it has not 

 been so profitable a crop, and I have cast it off, 

 which I tliink is quite an improvement. Rye left 

 my land hard ; it is, however, a surer crop to seed 

 clover with than oats; yet by rolling well there is 

 little risk in seeding with oats. I have found itall 

 important to roll spring seeding. 



My lands are continually improving. As an ev- 

 idence of this, in referring to my books, my sales 

 have increased, since I adopted this system, as 2 to 

 10. I do not wish to be understood that I think my 

 system perfect, for I do not. 1 expect to increase 

 my corn crop from fifty to an hundred fold and 

 other crops in proportion, within the next twenty 

 years, provided I may live so long. To make these 

 improvements which are evidently in our power, is 

 a duty which every man owes to his country ; and 

 if he will do this duty, he may be as rich as he 

 pleases — so rich he can look any man in the face 

 without owing him a dollar. 



I have written more than I intended, but the field 

 opened so wide, I could not say less. If what I 

 have written, shall cause to make but one load of 

 manure, it will do some good, for it will make ma- 

 ny blades of grass grow where none grew before. 

 I hope other and abler pens will take up the sub- 

 ject. This, to my shame, is my debut. 



THOMAS WHITE. 

 Putney Meadows, Vt. Jan. 10, 1839. 



bout tlie 25th of May ; and I never discovered a 

 smutty head in either kind, nor did it mildew or 

 rust. 



Some other pieces of wheat sown (without the 

 above preparation) in the same neighborhood one 

 week earlier, and about the same altitude, were very 

 badly mildewed. 



I do not undertake to say the course I adopted, 

 is a sure remedy against smut or rust, but merely 

 state facts, wliich prove, that under some circum- 

 stances verv smutty seed wheat will produce a good 

 crop perfectly free from smut. 



Last season, for the first time, I tried the field 

 culture of the ruta baga, upon one eighth of an a- 

 cre of ground, which was managed very much as 

 yours was. At liarvesting 1 had one hundred bush- 

 els good measure. In feeding them out this win- 

 ter to a voke of working oxen, my experience I'ul- 

 ly corroborates your statement. The real value of 

 them needs only to be known and then Merrimack 

 county would soon exhibit more acres of them, than 

 it did of Indian wheat last season — and we then 

 could have more beef, and less slap jacks. 13. 



Cattle in Kentucky. 



From the Franklin Farmer published at Frank 

 fort, Kentucky, we condense the following state- 

 ment of prices, procured at a public sale of cattle 

 raised on the farm of the late Gen. James Garrard 

 near Paris in that State. The sale was the ordina- 

 ry one for the settlement of the estate. The cattle 

 were from crosses of the Durham breed, being de- 

 scended from the celebrated cattle San Martin 

 and Tecumseh imported from Europe in the year 

 1817. From the published statement we infer tliat 

 the cattle were all produced on the farm. The 

 profits on these thirty cattle to the owners could 

 have been not much short of ten thousand dollars 

 after paying all expenses and interest on the use of 

 the farm ! 



Bulls. 



No. 1, Exception, five years old, full blood §1830 



2, Eclipse, bull calf six months old, do. 6rf8 



3, Bull calf five months old 7-8 blood 



Female Influence and Energy. 



I have observed that a married man falling into 

 misfortune is more apt to retrieve his situation in 

 the world than a sing-le one ; chiefly because his 

 spirits are soothed and relieved by domestic endear- 

 ments and hia self respect kept alive by finding that, 

 although all abroad be darkness and humiliation, 

 yet is still a little world of love at home of which 

 he is monarch. Whereas, a single man is apt to 

 run to waste and self neglect ; to fancy himself 

 lonely and abandoned, and his heart to fall to ru- 

 ins, like some desertsd mansion, for want of an in- 

 habitant. I have often had occasion to remark the 

 fortitude with which women sustain the most over- 

 whelming reverses of fortune. Those disasters 

 which break down the spirit of a man and pros- 

 trate him in the dust, seem to call forth all the ener- 

 gies of the softer se.\, and give such intrepidity and 

 elevation to their character, that at times it ap- 

 proaches to sublimity. Nothing can he more touch- 

 ing than to behold a soft and tender female, who 

 had been all meekness and dependence, and alive 

 to every trivial roughness, while treading the pros- 

 perous path of life, suddenly rising in mental 

 ibrce to be the comforter and supporter of her hus- 

 band under misfortune, abiding with unshrinking 

 firmness, the bitterest blasts of adversity. As the 

 vine wliicli has long twined its graceful foliage a- 

 bout the oak, and been lifted by it in sunshine, 

 will, when the hardy plant is rifted by the thunder- 

 bolt, cling around it v/ith its caressing tendrils, and 

 bind up its shattered boUjxhs ; so is it beautitully 

 ordered by Providence, that woman, who is the or- 

 nament and dependant of man in his happier hours, 

 should be his stay and solace v.'hen smitten with 

 sudden calamity; winding herself into the the rug- 

 ged recesses of his nature, tenderly supporting the 

 drooping head and binding up the broken heart. 

 Washington Irving. 



4, 

 6, 



do 

 do 



82 



07 50 

 G6 

 81 



do 

 do 

 do 



seven, do 15-16 blood 

 do 7-S blood 



six months, 13-lG blood 

 Cows AND Heifers. 

 No. 1, Cherry, nine years old, full blood 



2, Matilda, three " do 



3, Fanny Kemblc, calf seven months 



old, full blood 



4, Maria, four years old, do 



5, Melvira and calf, two years, do 



6, Marchioness, one year, 



7, Moss Rose, nine years, 



8, Tulip, fourteen years, 

 0, Beauty, seven years, 7-8 blood 



10, Red Champion, twelve years, 7-8 blood 81 



11, White Rose do do 55 



12, Lady Morgan, one year, 15-16 blood 550 



13, Snow Drop, a calf eight months, 

 15-16 blood 



14, LuciUa, one year, 15-16 blood 



15, Julia Jackson, one year, 7-8 blood 



16, Rosette, a calf six months, 7-8 blood 



17, Lily, four years, 7-8 blood 



15, Josephine, two years, 7-8 blood 



16, Red Beauty, two years, 7-8 blood 



20, White Lily, one year, 11-16 blood 



21, Young Nell, one year, 7-8 blood 



22, Red Exchange, five years, 3-4 blood 



J 125 



920 



880 

 551 

 1005 

 407 

 375 

 130 

 476 



23, Drone, four years, 7-8 blood 



24, Caroline, three years, 7-8 blood 



325 

 340 

 105 

 155 

 190 

 205 

 275 

 105 

 140 

 121 

 1.55 

 140 



$11,845 50 



Liime your Orchards. 



The effect of lime on orchards and on grounds 

 in which fruit trees are planted ie stated to be very 

 beneficial ; it improves their hoaltli and promotes 

 their growth, and it is said to improve the quality 

 of the fruit. The food or pasture of the trees is in- 

 creased in quantity, and improved in quality by the 

 appliciilion, and it is doubtless an important agent 

 in destroying the grubs and worms which are so de- 

 structive to fruit trees by the wounds which they 

 inllict, as well on the tender, absorbing fibres of 

 the roots, as on the brancbes and trunk. 



The good efiiects of lime- on apple and peach 

 trees are perceptible in a short time, and it is believ- 

 ed equal benefit will be derived from its applica- 

 tion, by all other kinds of fruit trees. 



Let us try it without delay, for it is universally 

 known that good fruit is never produced by an un- 

 healthy tree. — Farmer's Cabinet. 



For Itie Farmer'a Monthly Visitor. 

 I observed a recipe to prevent smut in wheat in 

 the first number of your paper : 1 have no doubt 

 but in most cases it is a preventive. Last spring I 

 bought one and a half bushels of Tea wheat for 

 seed which had much smut in it. I also sent to 

 Boston for half bushel of Dantzic wheat. When I 

 received it I had much doubt about sowing it, as it 

 was the smuttiest wheat I ever saw, and at least 

 one quart of oats in it. However I had somev/here 

 read that washing in a strong brine would remove 

 the oats. I made a brine strong enough to bear an 

 egg ; which floated all the oats and unbroken 

 smut; thoroughly washed both kinds — drained off 

 the brine, and mixed nearly slacked lime so as to 

 separate the kernels, and sowed the same day — a- 



The learned Blacksmith. 



We have seen in the newspapers an account of 

 a learned Blacksmith, who was acquainted with 

 more than fifty languages, ancient, modern and 

 oriental. By an article in the Observer of Satur- 

 day, we learn that this Blacksmith is Mr. Elihu 

 Burritt. He is a native of New Britain, in the 

 town of Berlin in Connecticut, where he learned 

 his trade. He has resided a year or two past, at 

 Worcester, Mass. principally on account of the ex- 

 cellent library at that place, of the American Anti- 

 quary Association. Ho now does regularly every 

 day a journeyman's day's work, at the Blacksmith 

 business. Connecticut, and the village of New 

 Britain in particular, has reason to be proud of such 

 a son ; ai«l we trust the Young Men's Institute of 

 Hartford will be so successful in the establishment 

 of their library, that they will ofter sufficient in- 

 ducement for Mr. Burritt to return among us. 

 They certainly cannot desire a nobler incentive 

 for effort. — Hartford Cmcrant. 



Crime in Massachusetts. 



By the reports of the district attorniesit appears 

 that there have been procured, within the last year, 

 eight hundred and filty-two convictions for crime 

 in the court of record of the Commonwealth. Of 

 that number 2'j7 were for larceny, 196 for viola- 

 tion of the licence laws, 100 for nuisances and 37 

 for forging and counterfeiting. Of the convicts, 

 128 were sentenced to the State Prison. 



The county of Suffolk furnishes more than • 

 third of tlie State. The whole number of convic- 

 tions during the year was 303, of which were for 

 larceny, 151 ; assault and battery, 44 ; forgery, 25; 

 houses of ill fame, 21 ; violation of license law, 3. 



In Middlesex and Essex, [composing the north- 

 ern district] there were for violating of the license 

 law 53 convictions ; larceny, 47 ; nuisance, assault 

 and battery 18. Total 205. 



In Middle district [composed of the counties of 

 Worcester and Norlblk] there were 122 conric- 

 tions; for violation of license law, 42; larceny, 32; 

 nuisance, 13 ; assault and battery, 7. 



In the western district [Hampshire, Hampden, 

 Franklin and Berkshire counties] there were 61 

 convictions ; of which there were for assault 

 and battery, 30 ; larceny, 13; violation of the li- 

 cense law,9 ; nuisance, 3. 



In the southern district, comprehending all Bris- 

 tol, Plymouth and the remaining counties, he 

 whole number of cases was, 161 ; on the licence 

 law, 86; larceny, 42; nuisance, 15; assault and 

 battery, 11. — Worcester Aegis. 



Cheerfulness and activity do not often accompa- 

 ny vicious habits. The ale-house is the resort of 

 the person who knows not what else to di> with 

 himself. The promotijig innocent and meaning a- 

 musements, is part of the schoolmaster's most ttri^ 

 ous business. — Central Society of Ediieation. 



