1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



261 



extent. They keep a large flock of sheep ; and 

 all their woollen fabrics are manufactured among 

 themselves. They likewise are very extensively 

 engaged in the raising of garden seeds, which 

 are put up in a very neat manner, as is well 

 known, and distributed over the country. 



A three story brick building or college, erected 

 for one of their families, is mDSt remarkable for 

 its neatness and the excellence of the materials 

 and workmanship. What by the the "world's 

 people," is called taste, that is a study of sym- 

 metry and beauty in the forms of objects, is studi- 

 ously abjured by this remarkable community. 

 Yet in the perfection of finish, which they bestow 

 upon every production of their mechanical in- 

 dustry, they show that native perception of fitness, 

 order, and harmony, which constitute the elements 

 of the most cultivated and refined taste. The 

 same amount of expense and labor, ot which 

 they areneversparing, already devoted to the con- 

 struction of their buildings and the arrangement 

 of their grounds, had they indulged themselves 

 even in a slight degree in tasteful ornament and 

 embellishment, without impairing at all the con- 

 venience, utility, or permanence of their works, 

 might have rendered them extremely beautiful. 

 In so doing they would have Ibund in them a 

 new and prolific source of pleasure, may I not add 

 also of improvement. I know their candor will 

 pardon these suggestions which have no unkind 

 origin ; and which have their tbundation in the 

 universal beauty of the natural world, as seen 

 every where and always, even in the perishable 

 crystals of the frost, and the fading tints of the 

 sky, in the plumaire of the birds, in the unrival- 

 led splendors of the vegetable world ; in a word, 

 in every production of the divine power and good- 

 ness, from an atom floating in the sunbeam, to a 

 planet wheeling its couiee in the glittering ar- 

 ches of the skies. 



RUTA BAGA. 



From the same. 



Ruta baga are differently estimated by diflerent 

 individuals. Mr. Merrill of Lee, Valet of Stock- 

 bridge, Lavvton of Sheffield, Bacon and Chapin of 

 Richmond, Colt, Goodrich and Plunkett of Pitts- 

 field, highly approve of ruta baga ; and some of 

 them consider them of equal value with potatoes 

 for swine or cattle. Mr. VVerden of Richmond, 

 dislikes them, and says the general experience of 

 farmers there is against them. It is difficult to 

 reconcile these contradictory statements. They 

 are by no means so nutritious as potatoes, espe- 

 cially those kinds of potatoes which are most fari- 

 naceous ; and they are not comparable to carrois 

 or parsnips or the sugar-beet lor feeding stock. 

 But they are a valuable, though an exhausting 

 crop ; and are raised at comparatively little ex- 

 pense. The golden yellow turnips with purple 

 tops are the preferable kind. The white kinds, 

 and what are called the French turnips, are an in- 

 ferior plant. 



Mr, Merrill of Lee, applied them to the flitting 

 of cattle with much success. He purchased a 

 yoke of cattle in the fall, in low flesh, at §50, and 

 having fed them through the winter on two bush- 

 els of ruta baga each per day, with good hay but 

 with no other provender, he sold them in the 

 spring for $170, at ^8 per 100 lbs. 



Mr. Ashburner of Stockbridge, whose cultiva- 

 tion of vegetables is no where excelled in neatness 

 and productiveness, is in the habit of transplanting 

 his sugar-beet by merely making a hole with a 

 hoe, and laying them in horizontally, keeping the 

 tops free. He has tbund planting with a dibble 

 too slow a process ; and the plant is noi so likely 

 to live, as the fine dirt is not so easily brought up 

 to the small roots of the plant. He has tried the 

 transplanting of wheat by way of experiment, but 

 it was not successful. 



1 have transplanted ruta baga with great des- 

 patch and entire success, simply by ploughing a 

 furrow, then taking the plants from a seed-bed, 

 dipping them in water, separating them and lay- 

 ing them along in the furrow, with the top on the 

 furrow-slice, at a distance of a loot apart, as fast 

 as a man could walk; and soon following with a 

 plough and covering them. It is well to go over 

 the ground with a hoe, to relieve plants that may 

 be too deeply buried, and to cover those which 

 \nay by accident have been left exposed. They 

 are almost certain to live; and I have thought the 

 work not more than to thin them out, when they 

 are sowed thickly, where they are to stand. 

 There is an additional advantage in this method, 

 that the plants may be forwarded in the nursery, 

 when it is not in your power to prepare the land ia 

 season for sowing the crop where they are intend- 

 ed to stand. 1 am not able to say whether the 

 sugar-beet is as tenacious of lite ; but the experi- 

 ments of Mr. Ashburner lead to such a pce- 

 sumpiion. 



THE ALCHYMY OF THE DUST HOLE. 



From the London Globe. 



The transmutation of earth into the precious me- 

 tals is carried on with lacility in this metropolis;, 

 the very dirt of some of the parishes is as eagerly 

 sought lor as place and profit. In St. Marylebone, 

 the present contractor has paid £1,890 per an- 

 num lor the dust! In St. George Hanover square, 

 the contractor gives £1,230 lor the privilege of 

 sweeping the streets ; St. Martin's parish received 

 last year, from the contractor £250, and he swept 

 the streets into the bargain ! St. James' parish 

 paid £100 for sweeping, and received £200 lor 

 the breeze, being a balance in iavor of the par- 

 ish of £100. St.'Paul's, Covent-Garden, received 

 £ 150 from the contractor last year, and this year 

 will receive £210. So, by a species of mercan- 

 tile legerdemain, or modern alchymy, the enor- 

 morrnous sum ol £3,780 yearly is received alone 

 for the accumulated dirt of five parishes. 



HEADING DOWN PEACH TREES. 



From tlie Genesee Farmer. 



The easy culture, and rareness of disease in the 

 peach tree, in western New York, has caused 

 little attention to be bestowed upon it alter trans- 

 planting. There is, however, good reason ibr be- 

 lieving that the quality of the fruit may in many 

 instances be greatly improved by heading down 

 the old tops. 



It may be observed that in general peach treC3 

 after becoming twelve or fifteen years old begin to 



