702 FARMERS' REGISTER— ROOT CULTURE— PRUNING FRUIT TREES. 



If the fodder which the stalks and shucks afford 

 is an object to the farmer, as they certainly will be 

 when their advantages are appreciated, the se- 

 curing these in good condiiion is a nialter of im- 

 portance. To effect this, as well as to secure the 

 crop li'om the eil'ects of early autumnal fi'osts, we 

 recommend the jjractice we have long and satis- 

 iactori!}' I'oUowcii, of cutting the crop at the 

 ground ns soon as the corn is glazed, or the sur- 

 lace of the kernels has become hard, and of im- 

 mediately setting it up in shocks to ripen and cure. 

 This we have always been enabled to do early in 

 September, and once in the last week in August. 

 The quality of the grain is not impaired, nor the 

 quantity, in our oj)inion, diminished, by this mode 

 of management, while the lodder is greatly in- 

 ci'eased, and its quality much improved. 



NKW MOVING POWER. 



At a meeting of the French Academy of 

 Sciences, on the 16th of June, a very interesting 

 conmiunication was read from M. Thilorier, a 

 skiltid chemist, who exhibited to the Academy 

 the apparatus by which he procured a litre (a 

 quart) of liquid carbonic acid in a ihw seconds. 

 The properties of this substance, he observed, 

 have been but little examined, chiefly because it 

 requires to be confined in close vessels, hermeti- 

 cally sealed, and capable of resisting a great pres- 

 sure. It surpasses all known bodies in the expan- 

 sion and contraction which it undergoes from given 

 variations of temperature; from 32 to 88^ Fahren- 

 heit, a column of the liquified gas is elongated one- 

 half With the same change of temperature, a 

 similar cohmm of air is oiJy elongated one-eighth. 

 This enormous dilation, JM. Thilorier thinks, will, 

 in future, atlbrd the elements of a rnoving pow- 

 er infinitely more effective, as well as economical, 

 than that which is derived from the expansion of' 

 vapor. 



diciously have been willing to relinquish it; while 

 others are annually commencing it. The great 

 obstacles to the more rai;id extension of the cul- 

 ture among us, is the want of experience, the want 

 of proper implements, as drill barrows, cultivators, 

 &c., and the labor of securing the crop in winter. 

 The apparent magnitude of ihese obstacles is dai- 

 ly diminishing, and we shall ere long discover, 

 that the root crop may be cultivated, and secured 

 lor winter use, as easily as other farm crops. We 

 have had-very little experience in cultivating car- 

 rots, parsnips or mangel wurtzel as field crops: 

 but the Swedish turnip has been a favorite crop for 

 some years; and v/e can truly sa^', it has been one 

 of the most sure and profitable that we have taken 

 from our grounds. 



From the Cultivator. 

 ROOT CULTURE, 



Presents many advantages to the stock farmer. 

 Roots are less exhausting to the soil than grain; 

 they are admirably fitted to form a part of a couise 

 of crops; are very beneficial in |)ulverizing the 

 Boii; afford abundance of food for fu'm stock; may 

 be substituted for grain; and serve to augment and 

 improve the valuable product of the cattle yard. 

 An acre of ground, under good culture, will pro- 

 duce, on a tlur average, twenty tons of Swedish 

 turnips, mangel wurtzel, carrots, parsnips or pota- 

 toes. Supposing a lean animal to consume one 

 bushel a day, and a fattening animal two bushels, 

 the produce of an acre will then subsist three lean 

 bullocks 110 days, nearly the period of our winter, 

 and three fattening ones 55 days. — We merely 

 assume these as reasonable data, and ask, if the 

 result does not prove the profitableness of their cul- 

 ture. But we are not permitted to doubt upon 

 this subject, if we credit the testimony of those 

 who have tried them, and whose continuance in 

 the culture is the best) -roof of their value. Roots 

 enter hu-gely into the system of Flemish husban- 

 dry, which has been extolled as inferior to none 

 other, and in many parts of Great Britain, turnips 

 are considered the basis of profitable farming. In 

 our countrj-, root culture is winning its way to no- 

 tice and to favor. Few who have managed it ju- 



From the Cultivator. 

 PRUNING FRUIT TREES. 



We deprecate the old practice of trimming fruit 

 trees in autumn, winter or spring. Vegetation be- 

 ing dormant, the tree can make no speedy eflbrt 

 to cover the wounds inflicted by the knife and 

 saw. These wounds, exposed to searching 

 winds, and a scorching sun, become diseases, and 

 ollen bring on premature decay. Besides, an at- 

 tentive observer must have noticed, that whenever 

 |)runing is performed in the sj)ring, three shoots 

 are often thrown out where one has been cut away, 

 so that the very evil which it is intended to reme- 

 dy, a redundancy of useless spray, is increased 

 rather than diminished. If pruning is performed 

 in sununer, aiier the first grovv^th, say in the first 

 fifleen days in July, or the last seven in June, the 

 tree ttien abounds in elaborated sap, the wounds 

 are speedily iiealed, and amply protected, by tfie 

 foliage, from the malign influence of the sun and 

 winds. We have remarked in successive years, 

 and the fact is noticed by others, that when a tree 

 is pruned in summer, there are very seldom any 

 sprouts seen to shoot from the parts where the 

 knife and saw have been employed. If the reader 

 will try the experiment of summer pruning upon 

 a tew trees, we have little doubt he will agree with 

 us, that it has a decided p^reference over that per- 

 formed in any other season. The grand error of 

 our fiirmers consists in not pruning at all, or only at 

 long intervals, when it becomes necessary to take 

 out large limbs, and in doing this, the axe is too 

 often employed, Avhich mangles the trees so badly 

 that Ihey seldom fully recover from it. Pruning 

 should be ])erfl)rmed annually, while the limbs to 

 be taken off', and the spray, are small. The op- 

 eration is then trifling and safe, and the wounds 

 speedily heal. We want no better evidence of a 

 slovenly farmer, than to see his fruit trees so en- 

 veloped with suckers as to render it doubtful which 

 is the parent — a case which, bating a little fiction, 

 is often witnessed by the traveller. 



From the New York Star. 

 A NEWLY DISCOVERED CEMENT. 



Mr. Obadiah Parker, a native of New Hamp- 

 shire, and for many years past a respectable resi- 

 dent in Onondiiga county, in our state, and now in 

 this city, has, afler numerous experiments, dis- 

 covered a composition stucco or cement — which, 

 from a state of liquid mortar, hardens in a few 



