1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



657 



off" in a superabundance of urine. Tlierefore if] same stem, are frequent in botii; but is only on the 



you wish to realize benefit from pumpkins, (and 

 they are very valaable,even beyond what they have 

 been thoucfht to be,) you must remove their seeds. 

 Still I doubted, because I knew that a pie made 

 of pumpkin seeds was very good, and had no such 

 bad etlect. Now what man and animals are fond 

 of to eat, if taken in suitable quantity, generally 

 does not prove injurious. This I intimated to my 

 . friend, and observed that the seeds were not com- 

 posed of much aqueous matier. He remarked 

 that mau}^ things even in the form of dry powder 

 jiad an operation on the glands, &e. to produce a 

 •flow of liquid matter. 



Now, Doctor, tell us if the seeds must be re- 

 moved when we feed our swine with pumpkms, 

 , for they are very fond of them, and I had thought 

 they were very nutritive and productive of growtli 

 and flesh. If the flesh should be removed, we 

 'farmers ought to know it. I am aware (hat when 

 the pumpkin seeds are made into a pie, their par- 

 ticles may be so changed by cooking that they will 

 cease to have the bad effect named by my friend. 

 If they are boiled with the pumpkins may not their 

 nature be so changed as to render them beneficial 

 / instead of deleterious 1 



A Farmer. 



Note. — There is no doubt that the seeds of 



pumpkins are very diuretic and operate upon any 



animals, quadruped or biped, that take them into 



the stomach. 



If cooked however, with the rest of the pum- 

 kins we have thought that they were less so than 

 when given raw, and vastly more nourishing. We 

 never knew any evil consequences arise li'otn them 

 when eaten by cattle or hogs, and we should not 

 go to the trouble of removing the seeds when we 

 wished to feed them out. — Ed. M. Farmer. 



THE OKRA COTTON. 



From the South Carolinian. 



In your paper of the 13th ult., a writer calling 

 himself "An Old Farmer," condemns the Okra 

 cotton, which he raised from a quart of seed, which 

 cost two dollars. He did not have Okra cotton seed, 

 but a variety resembling it, and which should be 

 called Twin, not Okra. There are two distuict vari- 

 eties of Twin or Okra Cotton; some of the charac- 

 teristics of each, I will point out. The one called 

 Okra was discovered in Alabama, in first year's 

 Petit Gulf seed. It grows up generally in one 

 tall stalk — sometimes growing as high as 8 or 9 

 feet — with very short limbs, which are seldom 

 more than 6 or 8 inches long, and having its bolls 

 in clusters of two to seven, or more. I have seen 

 ten blossoms or forms in one bunch. Sometimes, 

 one,two orthree long limbs put out near the ground, 

 turn upwards, and grow parallel to the main 

 stem, bearing fruit as it does. 



The other variety, or Twin cotton, is said to 

 have been discovered in Chester District. It is now 

 somewhat like the Alabama Okra without being 

 the same. It is about a half way plant, between 

 the Okra and Petit Gulf. I have never seen it 

 taller than 4 or 5 feet. Its limbs, are longer than 

 the Okra, and not as long as the Petit Gull'. Both 

 kinds have twin bolls; but the bolls and blossoms are 

 more numerous in the Okra. Two bolls on the 1 

 Vor,. VII-83 



olira, that 1 have seen three blossoms within the 

 same calyx, or four, five, or more bolls, in one clus- 

 ter. 



There is also a clearly defined difference in the 

 Chester Tioin, a darker, green, and more naked 

 seed. No person who has once seen the two 

 plants growing, or the two kinds of seed, will ever 

 mistake the one for the other. 



The price paid, is also an evidence that " An Old 

 Farmer" did not get Okra cotton seed : none were 

 euer sold in Alabama, under five dollars a quart; 

 and in this state the price was 50 cents a seed. 



I am not prepared to say, that the Chester kind 

 is not a good cotton. I know too little of it. The 

 staple is good: I have seen some stalks, in gardens, 

 very well filled with bolls ; my only object now, is 

 to correct an evident mistake of "An Old Farmer." 



To the Alabama Okra there is one objection, 

 which I think can be easily obviated : It grows too 

 tall, and is liable to fall down. The remedy, is to 

 top it, at A^ or 4 feet. The stalk grows stronger, 

 the bolls fill up larger, and the product is increased 

 by it. As it will bear great crowding on the land, 

 the yield will be greater than from Petit Gulf It 

 ie, in fact, an improved Petit Gulf seed. 



A YouwG Planter. 



CURIOUS EXTRACTS FROM FULLER'S ' WOR- 

 THIES OF ENGLAND,' (1662). 



Wonders. — "At Fishtoft, in this county, no 

 rats or mice are found, so that barns built, party 

 per pale, partly in this and the next parish, on one 

 side are annoyed, on the other side (being Fish- 

 toll moitey) are secured from vermin. Surely no 

 piper (what is notoriously known of Hamell in 

 We.-tphalia) did ever give them ih'is mice-delivery 

 by his musicl<:. 



" It is easier to conjure up many, than to allay 

 one ditficulty; other places in England afibrding the 

 like. At one of the Rodings in Essex, no hogs 

 will root. In another common, no mole will cast. 

 In Lindley, in Leicestershire, no snakes are found. 

 I believe they over-shoot the mark, who make it 

 n miracle; they under-shoot it who make it ma- 

 jick; they come nearest to truth who impute it to 

 occult qualities. — " 



Habits of Norfolk. — " These are an army of 

 small pioneersjwhence men have learned cuniculos 

 agere, the art of undermining. They thrive best 

 in barren ground, and grow fattest in the hardest 

 frosts. Their flesh is fine and wholesome." 



" Pigeons. These of all fowls live most sociably 

 in a common-wealth together, seeing their gov- 

 ernment is not, as bees, monarchical. They are 

 generally reported without gall ; understand ir, 

 their gall is not sequestred into a distinct vessel, 

 as m other creatures. Otherwise we find the 

 efl^ects thereof in their animosities among them- 

 selves (whose bills can peck as well as kiss) as 

 also (if their crops be not clearly drawn) in the bit- 

 terness of their flesh. Tliey are most swilt in 

 flight, and the steerage of their tails conduceth 

 much to their steddy mounting upright. An en- 

 vious man, having caught his neighbour's pigeons 



