556 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 9 



this excellent vegetable, but will imitate his ex- 

 ample, by giving to the public the success which 

 may attend their method of'ciiltivating every plant, 

 fi-uit or vegetable, whicii will render theai easier 

 attainable by aW.—Ud. M. JJ] 



ON CHANGING THE COLOU OF THE FLOWERS 

 OF THE HYDUx\NGEA. 



f lonilho Magazine of Ilorlicultiirc. 



What is (here more beiiuiiful and cool to look 

 upon, of the flower kind, than the hydrangea? 

 Placed in the shady [)iazza, or window, it seems 

 to luxuriate with you in the cooling breeze of the 

 hot summer's day; participating the communing 

 with you in the luxury of light, shade and air. 

 Why! it will cool you, after a warm walk, to look 

 upon its large briirht trusses of flowers contrasting 

 with the broad deep green foliage. Then let me 

 suggest to those of your readers who may delight 

 in this beautiful plant, how they may make it sport 

 its colors, showing some very beautiliil blending 

 of shades. 



For several years past, I have been studying to 

 effect this. Some of my friends sufrgesicd the 

 watering of the plants with soap-suds from the time 

 the buds begin to expand; oihers, a mixture of 

 peat ashes, or the ashes of pitch pine, with the soil; 

 soap-suds produce a luxuriant growth and large 

 flowers; and the ashes only cause some very slight 

 change in the coloring of the petals: oihers, agam, 

 have advised some peculiar compost, in vvhicli the 

 plants should be grown. 



My own experience convinces me that the best 

 compost for the growth of the plant, is, one half 

 rich garden loam, one lourih old hot-bed manure, 

 and one fourth coarse sand, the whole to be well 

 mixed together. The plants sould stand in a sit- 

 uation where they will only receive the morning 

 or evening sun lor an hour or two. When the 

 buds begin to expand, or after they have opened, 

 the plants should be watered with water in which 

 have been dissolved saltpetre and oxide of iron, in 

 the following proportions: — to a table rpoonful of 

 saltpetre and a half a one of oxide of iron add one 

 pail of water; these should be well stirred together, 

 and the whole allowed to stand exposed to the at- 

 mosphere a day or more, or until it has acquired a 

 temperature of 70". 



I am fully satisfied with the very beautiful vari- 

 ety of coloring which this fine plant produces un- 

 der this mode of treatment, and I am pleased to 

 communicate this to your readers, hoping that they 

 may meet with the like success; and if they will 

 inform us, in return, of anything which will effect 

 any other changes in the tints of the blossoms, 

 they will oblige all who love the liydranirea hor- 

 tensis. Yours, 



JoHM D. W. Williams. 

 Elm Bill, Moxbury, July 26, 1S39. 



GREEN CROPS FOR MANURE. 



If our absence had not prevented, the queries 

 from H. on the above subject, which were printed 

 jn the last number, would have been answered by 

 eome remarks immediately iollowing. Eut the 



answer would have been merely offered in cour- 

 tesy, and not (or any value of our own practical 

 experience on this subject. The following select- 

 ed article may serve in some measure to inform 

 H. ; though we incline to believe that the writer 

 has, in comparing the values of green crops and 

 dry leaves, as manure, much undervalued tlie lat- 

 ter material. 



In selecting plants to raise and turn in for ma- 

 nure, there are strong reasons for preferring legumi- 

 nous plants, or the pea tribe, to any grain, (as oats;) 

 and, also, broad-leaved to narrow-leaved plants. 

 All plants draw a large part of their nutriment 

 li-om the atmosphere, of which Ibreign supply to 

 their bulk, a greater or less portion is given to the 

 soil on which they grow, by their death and de- 

 cay, whether (he plants be green or dry, or killed 

 and applied by natural or by artificial means. 

 There is no doubt as to (his general position; but 

 scarcely any thing is yet known precisely as to the 

 comparative enriching values of different plants, 

 and in different conditions. 



Though knowing nothing from properly con- 

 ducted experiments, or practice, in regard to turn- 

 ing in green cultivated annual crops, we would be 

 directed by reasoning to choose lor (his purpose, in 

 preference to oats, rye sown on corn ground in 

 September, as early as (he corn could be safely re- 

 moved ; next the rye turned under when in blos- 

 som, and field peas (hen sown broad-cast, which 

 would also be turned in, in full growth, and wheat 

 sown. This, besides other advantages, would 

 doubtless serve well for another object of H. which 

 is (o cure land over-dosed with ninrl. Vegetable 

 matter supplied in any form, is the cure lor this 

 injury, and of course (hat object will be best and 

 most cheaply effected by such mode as will most 

 cheaply and effectually eiu'ich the land. [See 

 'Essay on Cal. Manures,' 2nd Ed., p. 52.] 



Our general views on this sulijec( will be given 

 more fully hereafter. In (he mean time, we unite 

 in the request to all other persons for information 

 as to results of the practice of green manuring. 

 —Ed. F. R. 



ON IMPROVING WORN-OUT LANDS. 



From tlie Soutlicni Agriculturist. 



Dear Sir, — In your last favor you say, "that 

 about three years ago I published an article in 

 your journal, wherein I recommendrd the owners 

 of poor lands to improve them, by planting a crop 

 of small grain; then peas, broadcast; and these to 

 be ploughed under belbre hard frost, (or the next 

 year's culture." This, I said, was the practice in 

 Georgia. At your request I am now prepared 'o 

 testily to the excellence of the suggestion, by my 

 own, and the experience of others. To any kind 

 ofsoil, green matter, turnpd under, is ever an ad- 

 vantage, because it returns to the earth what it 



