THE FARMER S MUM'MLY VISITOR. 



The successful efforts the Attorney has already 

 made at farminir siiould induce iilin to persevere. 

 Every professional man or man holdliio; jniblic office 

 can find leit-ure to attend to faniiiTitr operations. 

 Instead of dozing in bed in the morning until seven 

 or eight o'clock, he may rise before five and direct 

 tlie operations Ibr the day. He can conveniently 

 take hold himself frequently of such butiticssas lie 

 has I"arned to perform : he can siiew tliose about 

 him that he knows h*w to estimate a d:iy's work : 

 hisenjoyment, while spendingthat time which may 

 be spared from his professional or otiicial business, 

 will be full and satisfictory, while no seneible man 

 can long endure the ease of indolence ancl Inaction 

 without dissatisfaction with every thing, if not 

 without disability to perform any labor with effect; 

 and if the time should arrive of retirement from 

 ottice to give place to others equally worth}', or if 

 the improved condition of society or the general 

 health or moral condition of the people should les- 

 sen the business or emoluments of his profession, 

 he may find true enjoyment, if not exeniption from 

 obsolute want, in that productive pursuit which 

 will give every man in health an honest livcliliood. 



Fortlic r.lniiera M.iiillily Vi.-it..i. 



Observations aud researches in Agriculture ; 

 Being a Furnicr's Legacij to his Son. 



Prefatonj Remarks. — The observations which we 

 intend to make under tliis head are selected from 

 a series of notes and hints which were noted down 

 at the time of their occurrence, as likely to be of 

 use to one of my own family. 1 tclt as if 1 were 

 bound to make my son some wiser, some better in- 

 formed for my liaving trod the path of life Ijcfore 

 him. 1 felt as if 1 should not comply with ni}- 

 convictions of duty if I did not endeavor to make 

 the world, or at le.-jt my own family, some better 

 for my having lived and thounht before tlicm. In 

 accordance with this conviction of duty, I made, as 

 leisure permitted, such memoranda as 1 thounht 

 might prove useful to those of my own family, es- 

 pecially, and perhaps to others llirougli thein ; ,and 

 from those of thcni which bear the nearest relation 

 to agricultural pursuits, I Imve selected what fol- 

 lov/s. Perhajjs they may prove to some young be- 

 ginners in husbandry and rural economy whattliey 

 were intended to be to him for whose use and refe- 

 rence they were principally recorded — a starting- 

 post from the goal arrived at by a predecessor in 

 the course. 



1. RcT.v Baca: — adviintitgc.s of this croj). 

 You may sometimes be placed in circumstances 

 like the following, in which ynu would liardly know 

 wlial to do were it not tliat the season tor sowing 

 ruta liaga gives 3"ou some elbow-room. For in- 

 stance; you may uotjbe able to get out all your ma- 

 nure in season for 3'our corn and potatee crops, as 

 a farmer's work in May generally conies thicker 

 and faster than a month later. Rather than sum- 

 mer your manure, or get it out at a great disadvan- 

 tage at the season of corn-planting, plan your^\■ork 

 so a? to have a spot for Swedes to which you can ap- 

 ply your manure when yon have more leisure to 

 get it out. 



When your wheat is winter-killed, or otherwiso 

 so injured as not to be worth h:'f vesting, or when 

 other crops fail, it is of advantage to liave such a 

 resource as the culture of ruta baga presents. You 

 may cut your first crop of clover, if you cannot 

 spare it as manure, 'md have your land ready early 

 enough for this root crop. 



Another advantage of this crop is the facility 

 of harvesting it. A man can harvest fullv twen- 

 ty bushels of turnips for one of potatoes. 



The chief advantage of this crop consists, at the 

 present time, at least, in the much greater iiett pro- 

 lit which may be produced from an acre in th's thin 

 ill almost any oilier crop. An average crop is s!.\ 

 hundred bushels; but more than double this 

 quaiility is, en "'ood authority, said to have 

 been obtained, ine expense cf cultivation has 

 hecn esliinated as low as two cents a bushel ; and 

 I have never heard of judicious management being 

 reckoned higher than four cents a busliel. As food 

 for hogs, cattle, and even Iiorses, three bushels of 

 ruta bagas are generally accounted of equal value 

 with one of corn or two of oats. If you will be at 

 tiie trouble of making the calculations of profit 

 which these data furnish you, you will be astonish- 

 ed at the results. Take the average crop of hay at 

 two tons to the acre, and the average crop of ruta 

 bagas as above stated, and estimating three tons of 

 turnips equal, for neat cattle, to one ton of liay, and 

 you will arrive at a result almost equally surpris- 

 , ing. 



J, Asa iningr advantage I may mention, that on 



J. farms like mine v.'hich have not the advantage of a 



running stream where cattle can water themselves. 



and where we are obliged to break the ice or draw 1 

 for them every time they drink — it is in such cases 

 good for the comfort and well being of the cattle, 

 and lessens our labor, that less water is needed 

 when cattle are fed on this or other root crops. It 

 is no small trouble to water cattle as they ought to 

 be upon some farms in winter. 



This crop possesses other recommendations ; 

 these I shall not submit to you at present. 



2. KuG.i Baga. — Time of sowing, and rjuau- 



titij of seed. 



In latitudes approaching to 42 and 41! deg. ruta 

 bagas may be sown from the lOtli of June to the 

 loth of July. I have always aimed at getting them 

 in by the last week of June. 



As to the (luuntity of seed, I am now well con- 

 vinced, that it is much more profitable to sow more 

 seed than is really needed than to be more sparinrr 

 of seed, and be obliged to transplant The time 

 occupied in this operation will cost more than the 

 extra seed saved. If you use only half a pound to 

 an acre, you will have a good deal of transplant- 

 ing to do; whereas if you put on four pounds to 

 the acre you v.'ill have a great many to hoe or thin 

 out, but with regular sowing, no transplanting. 

 Transplanted roots never do well. From eight 

 inches to one foot should intervene between the 

 plants. 



3. Soap. — .5 hint in Iluusciriferi/. 



In summer and autumn your soap-grease is apt to 

 accumulate beyond your immediate wants; if put 

 away it is apt to be devoured by maggots, and if 

 made into siaji, you may not have pine cr other 

 appropriate vessels enough to hold it. Having suf- 

 fered loss from being placed in such circumstances 

 we were much gratified with a piece of intelligence 

 accide!:tal!y received, v.hich relieved us from the 

 disagreeable dilemma. By the boiling your soft 

 soap with salt, about a quart of the latter to three 

 gallons of the former, you can separate lye and wa- 

 ter enough to make the soap hard. . After boiling 

 half an hour, turn it out into a tub to cool. Cut 

 the cake which swims on tiie top into pieces, and 

 having scraped cff froth and other impurities, melt 

 again, (without the l3'e and water underneath, of 

 cour.se,) and pour into a box to cool. You may 

 then cut it up .into bars of jiroper dimensions for 

 drying. By adding a proportion of resin, well pul- 

 verised, at the last boiling, you will have yellow 

 soaji like that made for market. 



Families moving to the ' Far West' or elsewliere, 

 would find it more advantageous to make thoir 

 soap fit for carriage in this way, than to give it a- 

 way,or sell it for next to nothing. 



4. Starch frovifro~cn potatoes. 



By accident or careltfssness we once had a hv: 

 potatoes left in the field so as to be injured by an 

 unexpected frost. As we liad not our supply of 

 starch for the season yet pre]iarrd, it was thought 

 best to take these potataes, before they thawed, and 

 obtain what starch we could from them. They did 

 not yield so much as sound ones — perhap.-^ a half. 

 .5. Cftuses of seeds not germinating. 

 We have known, and heard of considerable loss 

 •iiid disappointment from seeds, particularly onion 

 seeds, not growing. We have thought and inquir- 

 ed in reference to t!ie cause, and the result of our 

 cogitations and inquiries ma)' be tlius stated. 



Without a certain degree of 'iioisturc i-eeds will 

 not germinate. On dry sandy soils, and in a dry 

 season, it seems liigiily probable, then, that seeds 

 may he deprived of the requisite degree of moist- 

 ure ; ])erha))s receiving just as much as will mould 

 them and destroy tl-.eir vitality, or being so near 

 the surface as to be injured by the sui.'s heat and 

 light. 



But the seeds may have germinated, and have 

 commenced to send out their roots and stem stalks 

 and yet be destr-'>jfcd. If the soil is not pressed 

 closely to the seeds, and very dry weather occurs 

 just at this period of the process of germination, 

 the root beiiig too distant from the soil, and too fee- 

 ble to draw any supply of moisture, the liquid tbod 

 of the plant coBtaiiied in the fermented seed may 

 be dried up, and the life thus destroyed. 



If you would avoid disappointment and loss from 

 seeds failing to grow, the preventive process is in- 

 dicated bv a knowledge of the causes most fre- 

 quently productive of this result, which we think 

 are those stated above. If you sprout your seeds 

 before putting them into the ground you will pre- 

 serve them from the first cause of failure, but if 

 you pulverise your soil thoroughly and press it in 

 this state with hoe^ spade, or roller, upon the seeds 

 thus sprouted, the root stem will soon and surely 

 derive sutiicient moisture from the soil. 



In a few instances 1 have found my neighbors 

 blaming the seed as useless, particularly of onionfi, 



carrots and parsnips, when I have obtained a little 

 of the same seed, and found it to sprout quite well. 

 Yon may easily save yourself from such reflections, 

 or from the t'jiiiptation to blame others, by steeping 

 the suspected Reed in warm or tepid water from six 

 to twenly-four hours, according to the size and 

 hardness of the seed, and then sitting it away in 

 a warmish place for a day or two. If good it will 

 sprout in this time; if ke])t warm ; in a darkish 

 place, and it does not sprout in this lime, the seed 

 is faulty. 



In connexion with this subject, I may state that 

 several circumstances incline me to the belief that 

 corn which has been sprouted — no matter in what 

 steep — is safe from the lavages of the red or wire- 

 worm. It has been -fashionable to steep in astrons; 

 solution of copperas, and to ascribe the safety oi" 

 the seed in this state, not to the change which fer- 

 mentation has produced in the germ or chit which 

 is usually first attacked, hut to the change in the 

 taste from the copperas. We have known corn 

 soaked in simjile water- — in water alone — to escape 

 from the attacks of the worm as well as that soak- 

 ed in a copperas steep. Until this matter is made 

 more certain, however, I would hold it bad husband- 

 ry to neglect the copperas, 'as in addition to the 

 change produced by heat and moisture, we have al- 

 so the disagreeable taste coinmunioftted by this 



Silt. 



(>. Stirring the earth a relief against drought. 

 Is the title of a very excellent article published 

 by the Hon. John Lowell, in the Massachusetts Ag- 

 ricultural Re|iository, from which you will find an 

 extract' in the text-book I first put into yonr hands . 

 — Fessenden's Complete Farmer. In a very dry 

 season, such as we had in 1838, he had some early 

 potatoes in a very sandy soil which seemed so fee- 

 ble that they were on the point of withering daily. 

 All hopes cf a crop were abandoned; and therefore 

 he thought them the subject of what he then sup- 

 posed a desperate experiment. He ploughed them 

 thoroughly, and in three days, without a drop of 

 rain, they were observed to have changed color, 

 and to have started up at'reshas if they had receiv- 

 ed the benefit of; ample showers. A recollection 

 of this experiment led us in the dry summer of '38, 

 to compensate to our hoed crops for the want of 

 showers, by keeping the earth well stirred and pul- 

 verised'^around them ; and we are confident that 

 our operations in this way were beneficial. 



This need no longer be considered a desperate 

 experiment, for science enables us to explain iu 

 what manner the benefit is produced, and might 

 have indicated it as a proper course even before it 

 had been tested by trial. In a time of drought 

 take a piece of earth and ]>ulverise the siu'face of 

 one half of it, allowing the other half to remain in 

 its hardened and baked condition. For several 

 mornings altervvards observe upon which of these 

 pieces the dew seems to remain the longest, or to 

 iia', e been imbibed the most. The piece which has 

 been stirred will so evidently be seen to be the 

 moistest that no doubt can be entertained of your 

 haying gained .'iome moisture for the soil in this 

 way. ISow it is universally or very generall}' ad- 

 mitted that the dews abound in the food of plants, 

 and this being so, by stirring the soil around plants 

 you furnish this nutriment to the roots by making 

 the soil light and porous which conveys moisture 

 more readily than a hard, baked soil. The air also 

 is supposed to contain the food of plants in a gase- 

 ous or very readily-appropriated state. If this is 

 so, and we have no reason to doubt, then it is easy 

 to see that a light and porous soil is more permeable 

 to tbe'air and to wliatever food it contains than a 

 hardened 'dil can be. This consideration shows 

 that stirring the earth maybe beneficial not only In 

 season.^ of drought, but also at all times. And in 

 confiriuation of this we recollect that it has been 

 recorded of C'urwen, an English agriculturist, that 

 bv continually stirring the soil around some field 

 cabbages, he obtained them of the enormous weight 

 of 50 lbs. 



Mr. Lowell suo;weBts anotlxer mode by which 

 plants n-.ay be lienc-Stted in a dry season, by stirring 

 the surface, and keeping the soil light and porous. 

 It is well knoAvn that porous bodies are barf con* 

 ductors of lieat. If you take a piece of woollen cloth 

 or a little wool, and a piece of slate or metal, and 

 place them upon a piece of lard or butter exposed 

 to the rays of the sun, you will in a few minutes be 

 convinced of the difference there is, as conductors 

 of heat, between porous and compact bodies. Now 

 it is reasonable to infer from our knowledge of thia 

 law, that earth in a hard and compact state must 

 convey heat much deeper than soil that is loose and 

 porous. And it is stated in confirmation of this, 

 that compact earth will become very hot, while a 

 I light garden loam well stirred, will remain cool, at 

 J two inches Qudsr the surface, at noon of a sunshine 



