56 



^i}t jTarmcr^g itlontl)!!) IJisitor. 



Bides this, grcnlcr rare and skill aie usually em- 

 ployed nt the Noitli in producing sound and safe 

 s«e<ls. 



We can recoinniend, from repented trials, tlie 

 seeds of Risley, Cliatauqiie county, New York, 

 and of Mr. Breck, of Boston. Landretlj, of Phil- 

 adelphia, has a li!uh reputation, Init we have been 

 unfortunate in u.siiig his seeds — very probably 

 from a lack of skill. We shall try them again 

 next summer. The poorest seeds we have tried 

 were the " Union \';llage" seeds. Our eaily York 

 cabbages proved to'be trifling flower seeds — Lima 

 beans were the White Dutch Runners. Not one 

 of five of their (leas vegetated. The beets were 

 not good seed, and the variety (blood beet,) not 

 pure. The experience of others, at this point, 

 is like ours. Unless more care is taken in that 

 establishment, their seeds will lose all credit. — 

 Their lettuce seed has always proved good, and 

 such others as are easy to raise. 



2. We insert a table, exhibiting th6 years which 

 different seeds will retain their vitality ; 



Some seeds retain their power of germination 

 to an astonishing length of time, as will appear 

 from facts stated by Professor Lindley : 



" Not to speak of the doubtful instances o<' 

 seeds taken (i'om the pyramids having germina- 

 ted, melons have been known to grow at the age 

 of forty years, kidney-beans at one hundred, sen- 

 sitive-plant at sixty, rye at forty ; and there are 

 now growing, in the garden of the Horticultural 

 Society, raspberry ■jjlants raised from seeds sis- 

 teen or seventeen himdred years old." (See In- 

 troduction to Bot((7ty, eti. 3, p. 3.58.) 



But in selecting seeds,/rfsA ones should always 

 be had, if possible. Where, however, the vege- 

 table is cultivated for the sake of its flower, or its 

 fruit, it is sometimes better to select old seed. — 

 Thus, balsamines (the touch-me-not) and the cu- 

 cumber, squash, and melon tribe, do better on 

 seeds three or four years old ; for, fresh seeds 

 produce |)lants whose growth will be too luxu- 

 riant for producing fruit ; whereas, from old seed 

 the plants have less vigor of growth, but a great- 

 er tendency to liiiit well. The preparation of 

 seed for planting.', will require another article, 

 which Bhall he given in proper time. 



All early garden seeds, sown in bills or drills, 

 should have the earth raised on th6 north side 

 of them. 



Fences. — Take another look at your enclosures 

 and see that your fenrea are sound, firm, high 

 and close. If you do not, and shordd unhniqiily 

 wrke up some morning and find your cattle in 

 the corn, your pigs in the peas, &c., you will 

 please to recollect that we told you so. After 

 planting, and before weeding, you will probably 

 nave time to make some excellent stone wall. — 

 See that you maki; it where it is most needed, and 

 what you make should be well made. We do 

 not admire certain apologies for fences which 

 we every now and then come across, in the course 

 of our agricultural tours. A jaggc<l, cobbling, 

 half-built wall, in which the stones look as if 

 they were huddled together by chance, or by an 

 earthquake, not at all disposed to be sociable, 

 but each seems to say to its neighbor, please to 

 keep your ilistance, isim id)ominaliou on any 

 man's farm. We h.ive seen too many such tough 

 monuments of InziuesB, which sccin to have been 

 tossed together for no other purfiosc hut to affbid 

 the quadrupeds of the place the means of taking' 

 practical lessons in the art of jumping. 



From the Boston Flougbmnn. 

 Ou Managing Grass Fields Winler-Killed. 



Mb. Editor— Sir; 1 have piece of land ihul I 

 ploughed last August, ami laid it very Hal wiih 

 the Eagle plough, although n part iif it %vas ni^ver 

 ploughed before, it being a run too wet to plant. 

 I then put on the roller and spread manure and 

 sowed it with grass seed) it caiiix; up and looked 

 well last fall, and I felt much pleased with it, it 

 looked so smooth and green, but the frost h.is 

 thrown the fiurows al)out so, that it really looks 

 more like the work of hogs than of the I'lough. 

 What shall I do with it? will it ever become 

 smooth so that 1 can mow it ? if I go on to it with 

 the roller, the oxen will go in to their knees ; must 

 I put on more grass seed, or will what I sowed 

 last fill grow ? 



1 have another piece of about three acres that 

 I turned over and seeded as above, the first wi-ck 

 in September; the weather was dry and the 

 ground was dry, the consequence was, my seed 

 did not come up until it was so late thai the grass 

 did not get much of a start last fa|l, and it looks 

 rather |)oor now. I have sowed eighteen pounds 

 of clover seed on the piece. Had 1 best put on 

 any more Timothy this spring or leave it as it is.' 

 I have a piece of swale which is very uneven, 

 which I think of ploughing; the soil is but about 

 three or four inches deep; the sidjsoil is clayey 

 gravel. Now, as my object in ploughing is to rot 

 the old turl's and to level the ground, had I best 

 put in the plough this spring and loosen up the 

 subsoil, or let it be until it gets dry, and then 

 plough shallow? for, when it gets dry, the sub- 

 soil is very hard ; now, it is soft ; it being full of 

 water, and the water standing on it in some pla- 

 ces ; if I plough this spring, how deep is it best 

 to plough ? I have got some oyster shells, to put 

 around my young trees ; is it best to put them on 

 the surface, or plough them in ? 



By aHswering the above inquiries, you will 

 nnich oblige. Yours, 



Jonas Holt. 



Andover, March 24th, 1845. 



{S^ The frost will often heave low grounds in 

 winter, but you need not be territieil, they will 

 settle again when the frost is gone. If the win- 

 ter has killed any of your grass, sow more seed 

 in the spring. It will lake well in meadow grounds 

 and you will not need to roll or harrow them in 

 the spring. 



On the three-acre piece of dry ground 1 would 

 sow a little herdsgrass as well as clover. It may 

 not grow tall eiiotrgh for the scythe this season 

 but you will have it next year. 



The third piece, the low, rough land with a 

 thin soil, ought to he ploughed in June, and some 

 of the subsoil ought to be turned up on the sur- 

 face ; for if you plough a shallow furrow you 

 cannot lay the land even ; and as on such land 

 you do not value the present year's crop very 

 highly, you will make more of it under the fur- 

 row than in your barn. Plough in June and you 

 will be able to stir up more of the subsoil than 

 you will in August, and your land will lie more 

 even as your sward will be more rotten. Put 

 your oyster shells on the surfiice around your 

 trees. — Editor. 



nnd, in the last, the horse ilung had a powerful 

 ferinentalioii ; so itmch so, that it caused the peat 

 to ferment to such a degree as to mihlew. 



My conviction is, that at the time the bulbs 

 had got tlieir growth, but not ripe, the extraordi- 

 nary hot and wet weather, cau.«ed such a heat in 

 the ground, as to kill the potato. At that lime, 

 all dead vegetable matter was undergoing a pow- 

 erful fermentation ; the potato, being dead, went 

 with the rest of dead matter to derompo.siiioii. 



1 will here give a few experiments I have made 

 in the cultivation of the potato. A fijw vears 

 ago, (lolaloes were scarce and high; in March, I 

 told my wife if she would pare the potatoes and 

 put the parings in the cellar, so they should not 

 dry up, I would plant them. I planted about a 

 quarter of an acre. I bad as large and good po- 

 laloes from Ihpso parings, as I had from those I 

 planted whole or ju large pieces. 



The next year, 1 planted a row through the 

 centre of my poiaio-field, with the sjiiallesi pota- 

 toes J couhl find ; marked the row nt harvesting, 

 an<l found my potatoes all alike ; if it bad not 

 been for the mark, I shoidd not have known the 

 low. 



The next year, I continued my experiment with 

 the largest and sin.-dlest I could find, planted sidi; 

 by side ; at harvesting, I found no difference in 

 my potatoes. 



My observation in raising potatoes has led me 

 to the following conclusions. 



1. Have the ground in good condition. 



2. Put but four or five eyes in a hill. 



3. Plant the potato but a little below the sur- 

 face of the ground. 



4. Not cover the potato too deep. 



5. Give them a good dressing, about the twen- 

 ty-fifth of June, but not hill higli ; allcr this, the 

 potato crop will be good or poor, according t.> 

 the season. Respect fully, 



S. Ellis. 

 Orange, April 9, 1845. 



We sometimes have as good harve.sts when 

 the eyes or the parings only are planted, as when 

 the whole potatoes are taken. At other limes we 

 have known a great falling off where nothing but 

 the eyes were planted. It is not easy to explain 

 why this is the case. 



We like the rules for planting that are recoui- 

 meniled by our correspondent, with the excep- 

 tion of lint relating to planting eyes only. — Ed. 



your 



FroN) the Boslon Floughman. 

 Mode ofPlaiiting Potatoes.— Rot. 



Mr. Editor: — If you have not closed 

 pa()er against the potato rot, I will state what 

 came to my observation last fjtil. If it is wor- 

 thy a place in the Ploughman, it is at your plea- 

 sure. 



One of my neighbors ploughed for the first 

 time, about half an acre of plain land, in(dining 

 to a sandy loam; this, he planted with potatoes 

 without any manure in this field ; the potatoes 

 were good. 



I planted about h;df an acre on intervtde hind 

 inclining to clay; this,] manured in the hill 

 with old manure; this field was about half rot- 

 ten. 



The next, and last field, 1 will mention, was a 

 peat meadow of half an acre ; this, 1 manurcil 

 with green horse dung in the hill ; ilicrc were but 

 very few sound potatoes in this field. 



These throe fields lay within half a mile of 

 each other, had the same atmosphere, but a very 

 extremely diflerent soil. In the first mentioned 

 field, there was nothing to decompose. In ihi> 

 second, the old manure fermcnlcd u second time; 



Examine well the roots near the stem of jieach 

 trees, anil remove with a penknife all the grubs. 

 Their presence is shown by the gum oozing out. 



To Make Steel. — Steel is made of the purest 

 malleable iron, by a process called cementaiion. 

 In this operation, layers of malleable iron and 

 layers of charcoal, are placed one upon another, 

 in a proper furnace, the air is excluded, the fire 

 raised to a considerable degree of intensity, and 

 kept up for 8 or 10 days. If iqion trial of a bar, 

 the whole substance is converted into steel, the 

 fire is extinguished, and the whole is lelf to cool 

 for G or 8 days longer. Iron thus prepared is 

 called blistered steel, from ihe blislers which ap- 

 pear ou its surface. In England, cliarcoal alone 

 is used tor this jiurpose ; but Duamel found an 

 advantage in using one fourth to one third of 

 wooil ashes, especially when the iron was not of 

 so good a quality as to aflbrii steel possessing 

 tenacity of body as well as hardness. These 

 ashes prevent Ihe steel-making process (iom be- 

 ing efTecled so rapidly as it would otherwise be, 

 and give the steel pliability »iihoul dioiinishiiig 

 its hardness. The blisters on the surface of the 

 steel, under this management, are smaller i>nd 

 more numerous. He also found that if the hai!<, 

 when they are put into the furnace, be sprinkled 

 with sea salt, this ingredient contributes to give 

 body to the steel. If the cementation be coii- 

 liinied too long, the steel becomes porous, brit- 

 tle, of a ihuker IVacture, more fusible and capa- 

 l)le of being welded. On the contrary, steel 

 cemented with c.utli by infusible powders, is 

 gradually reduced to the state of forged iron 

 again. Excessive or repeating in the forge is at- 

 tiMided with the same efl'ccl. 



The properties of iron are remarkably changed 

 by cementation, and it acquires a small addition 

 to its weight, which consists of the carbon it has 

 absorded from the charcoal, nnd amounts to 

 about the himdred and fiftieth or two hundredth. 

 It is much more brittle and fusible than before 



