130 



^f)c jTarmer's iHontl)lij lltsitor. 



columns of your paper, on llie best mode of" pre- 

 serving llie seeds of tlie Pencil, I'lnni, Cherry, 

 Apple, I'enr, Quince Sec, througli the winter. — 

 The (piestion is often asked why the Peach, I'lum 

 and Cherry Seeds will not grow when jilantcd 

 ever so carefully ! I have heard many reasons — 

 some very scientific and learned, lint coming 

 fmm persons not conversant with the practical 

 culture of fruit, very wide of the mark. I will 

 give the mode of proceeding in an Eastern Nur- 

 sery of some note, the projirietor of wliiih was 

 particularly Buccessfid in the culture of choice 

 fruit. 



The seeds of the npple, pear, and quince hay- 

 ing a more tielicate covering than the stone fruit 

 generally receive more care and attention. Ap- 

 ple seeds are generally procured honi the po- 

 mace at cider mills, by throwing a quantity into 

 a tub of water and stirring and rubbing them to- 

 gether, the good .seed will settle to the bottom.— 

 They are then collected, and all imperl<?ct, cut 

 or bruised ones that may he found, are removed, 

 and then ihcy undergo another washing in clean 

 water. Pear and quince seeds are .scarcer, and 

 are generally collected from the cores when cut 

 up l<)r preserving; the quince requires iiuich 

 washing, on account of the gurry matter adher- 

 ing to the seed ; when well cleansed, wash about 

 an equal (juantity of fine river or other sand, un- 

 til all the coloring matter is removed; then 

 mix your seed well into it — pack them into a 

 crock having a hole in the bottom, covered with a 

 piece of broken china or the like, to allow the 

 superfluous moisture to drain out, like in flower 

 pots — cover it with a board perforated with small 

 holes, to allow the rain to pass ihrongh, and bu- 

 ry it in the ground, on the north side of a fence 

 or wall, even with the top of the crock — putting 

 a weight on the board to keep it on— leaving it 

 thus exposed to the wet and frost through the 

 fall and winter, only keeping it well guarded 

 from the sun, as dryness and heat are detriment- 

 al lo success. Pliun and cherry stones are treat- 

 ed in the same manner; the unsound ones will 

 be easily detected by their swimndng on the sur- 

 face in washing. Peach stones are generally 

 thrown into a bo.x or hole and covered lightly 

 with earth, in a shaded place exposed to the 

 north. Those that the frost has not cracked a- 

 part, may, in the spring, be opened in a black- 

 smith's vice, care being taken not to injure the 

 kernel. The shell in some kinds of peaches and 

 plums, and other stone fjuit, being very tena- 

 cious will lay in the ground, if imcracked thro' 

 three seasons without germinating. The time of 

 planting, yon will know by the sprouting of your 

 seeds. They should be planted every two or 

 three inches, in drills from two to three feet a- 

 part, as you have room — covering them with 

 about half an inch, or more, of soil. If stone 

 seed is properly kept through the winter, not one 

 in a hundred will tiiil, though artificially cracked. 

 If kept in the house, in a dry place, not one will 

 succeed. 



I would only ad<l that it is necessary to look 

 after your seeds occasionally, so that the lid is 

 not removed and the seeds destroyed by mice or 

 vermin. 



I have been rather len^'lhy, I fear, but I could 

 not ciulail without making the sense obscure, 

 unil 1 ho[ie I h.ivo made it sutticienily clear and 

 plain to all who may feci interested in siudi mat- 

 ters. C. o. a. 



Notes of a Desultory UeaOer. 



O.V THE SWI.1IMING I'OWFIl (IF HORSES. 



On the cnpncily of horses for swimtning, men's 

 ideas are very loo.si; and various. I'V'vv who have 

 never been in the western country would believe 

 how very common it is there to stcim on horse- 

 back o\er cre(!k» u\\{.[ bayous. Such liifling im- 

 ppdiments are not allowed to stand in the way of 

 a hardy pioneer, who in some respects, and es- 

 pecially in the mastery and use of the horse, may 

 be said to resemble the Guachu of the South .Amer- 

 ican pampas. 



Travelling once in the western country, I ex- 

 I)ressed some fear of not being able, from the 

 slate of the roads ami the absence of bridges 

 over the water courses, to rc.-ich a certain phuw 

 by a given time. " Oh ! " said a friend, " nothing 

 need be more certain. T;dio my lioi>e and liil 

 low such a road ; yon will only havi; to suim 

 tlio'Uig Black' and the ' Alligator IJayoii,' and 

 you may reach your destination bwfore dark."— 



On my appearing slio(d\ed at the necessity of 

 swimming rivers and bayous, an<l protesting th.it 

 I could not, myself swim a foot, he very coolly 

 answered, " oil, never mind, mi/ dear sir; my 

 horse su-im.i the drksl ol'aiiy horse you ever saw." 



1 remember hearing, when a boy, that a horse 

 belonging to St. Mark's county in Maryland, hnd 

 crossed liie ferry of Patu.xent at JJenediet, and was 

 tmned loose in the rich pastures ol '•IJattie Creek" 

 the superb estate belonging to the lather of Chief 

 Justice 'I'aney, in Calvert county. The tiext day 

 the horse, on being searched for, was returned 

 nun est. Jt was finally ascertained that ho swam 

 the Patuxeiit, where it was at least a mile vMile, 

 to cet home again; so true is it that with horses, 

 even more than with some men, there is " no 

 place like home I " Yet some iiioialisls of the 

 first water woidd degrade them and impeach the 

 goodness of their Creator, by divesting all ani- 

 mals of every feeling of fiiendship and sociality, 

 and all except the coarsest and most brutal pas- 

 sions and propensi;ies of animal nature. Where- 

 as every man of observation who has traveled 

 by that most agreeable of all mo<les of traveling, 

 on horseback with one orlwo good-natured, so- 

 ciable and witty companions, must have percei- 

 ved that the horses which fall in with each other 

 on the road sometimes become acquainted soon- 

 er than tlieir riders, and |)art company with moje 

 evident reluctance. Tliii) dont wait to bo intro- 

 duced to each other; indulge in no anti-social 

 or sinister speculations as to each other's wealth 

 and standing in society ; lay no schemes to in- 

 veigle iuid overreach; and when, finally, they 

 arrive at the place to be baited, no degree of him- 

 ger call prompt ihem to rush tolheir meals, with 

 more evidiuit appreheusioii of not ueiiiiig ilieir 

 share, or with more impetuuus and indecent haste 

 than we witness with disgust on the part of mod- 

 ern fashionable travellers on " fashionable Kuirs." 



But as lo the swimming power of the horse. — 

 Those who were cognizant of the fact of the 

 horse svvinniiing the Paluxent river, from Calvert 

 to St. Mary's counly, where it was a mile wiile, 

 were almost afraid to tell ii, for fear of bi'iug 

 doubted; yet, in a book before us, '' Dai-icin's 

 f oyage of a A'dturalisI," which the Harpers have 

 had the good taste an<l judgment to let us have 

 so proniplly, and which will be read with the 

 liveliest inleiest by all who have a taste lor nat- 

 ural history ; this very entertaining and popular 

 author says: " On a lormer excursion 1 crossed 

 the Lucia near its mouili, .-ind 1 was surprised to 

 observe how easily, our horses, although not useil 

 to swim, passed over a width of near six hund- 

 red yards. On mentioning this at Montevideo, 

 1 was told that a vessel containing some mounte- 

 banks and llieir horses being wrecked on the I,n 

 I'lata, one horse swam seven miles lo the stwre !— 

 In the course of the day I was amused by the 

 dexterity wiili which a (Jnaelio forced a restive 

 horse to swim a river, lie stripped otV his 

 clothe.-i, ami jumping on his back, rode iiiio the 

 water until it was out of its depth; then slipping 

 oft' the crupper, he caught hold of the tail, and 

 as oflen as the horse altcnqited lo turn rournl, 

 the man tiightened it back by splashing water in 

 its face. As soon as lin^ hmse touidied the bot- 

 tom on the other side, ihe man pulled himself on, 

 and was firmly seated, bridle in hand, before the 

 horse gained the hank. A naked man, on a na- 

 ked horse, is a fine spectacle ; I had no idea how 

 the two animals suited each otiier. The tail of a 

 horse is a very useful appeiulage ; 1 ha\'0 passed 

 a river in a boat with four peiqilo in it, which 

 was ferried across in the s.-iine «ay as the (lua- 

 cho. If a man and horse have to cross a broad 

 river, the h>\st way is for the man lo catch hold 

 of the ponnnel or mane, and help himself with 

 the other arm." 



So much for wiiat a horse can do in the way 

 of swimming when the crisis comes to "sink or 

 swim." 



History presents no example of the ellicieucy 

 ami useiiilness of the /lurse to equal that whicii 

 was iealize<l by Coktez, among the greatest 

 warriors, as related by Phescott, easily the first 

 of American historians, and what is more, an 

 lioiHut historian ! for about llio most delestahle 

 of all swindlers is he who swindles on a point ol 

 history. 



lint' the power of n few horses landed with 

 Corlez on the shores of Mexico was truly mag- 

 ical, for it was luiich greater iii a moral lliuii in a 

 phynieal sense. 



The native Mexicans had never before seen or 

 heard such u beast ; and under the impression that 

 man ami horse were but one animal, each luing 

 part and parcel of the other, they concluded it 

 could be nothing less than the Devil incarnate, 

 and did not wait, as did iheir descendants, for 

 the charge of our gallant Mj\y, but fled by thou- 

 sands at the approach of a single platoon of cav- 

 alry. 



Do not all military annals abound in examples 

 to show the overbearing efft-ct of moral influen- 

 ces ill war, and that every General should be, 

 practically, a good metaphysician? If old 

 "Kongli and Ready" had possessed the means, at 

 hand, lo take full advantage of the running start 

 he got at Palo Alto, and the panic his victory 

 spread in the enemy's camp, he might then have 

 overrun a good part of Mexico. 



A Friend of the Horse. 



The Farmer^s Library. 



Facts and Opinions. 



Condensed for Ihe ^'llbaiii/ Cultivator. 



PoTAToiis. — H. N. Sherman in the Boston 

 Cultivator, is led lo conclude from experiments, 

 that it is not very material what the size of the 

 seed is, if the land is good. He ])lanled well 

 manured moist loam, in three ways. One piece 

 had two middle sized potatoes in the hill ; the 

 next one large one; and the lliird, one small 

 one. The result was, the two potatoes in a hill 

 produced many poiatoes, liut of siiiail size. — 

 The one with a large potato in a hill, "pro- 

 duced less amoiiut, but of larger size." 'J'lie 

 one small potato in a hill, "gave the least in 

 amount but the largest and most even in size." 



(iiANo FOR Peach Trees. — W. W. Mills, of 

 Smithtown, L. 1., says he applied guano success- 

 fully as follows: — The trees were on the decay, 

 and nearly destroyed by the worm. The first 

 of June, he removed the earth from the routs, 

 destroying the worms, then spliukleil a handful 

 of guano about the roots, wetting it alterwards 

 by sprinkling water. The guaiio was then cov- 

 ered with a peck of pulverized charcoal lo each 

 tree which was also wet ihoroualily. '"The 

 trees immediately changed their color, grew 

 astonishingly, and ripened their fruit in great 

 perfection. " 



Length of Corn Roots. — As a proof of the 

 inipoitance of deep plowing, Ellsworlh mentions 

 the ibllowing fa('t. There are now in the Na- 

 tional Gallery, corn roots taken from one side 

 of a hill of corn laid bare by a freshet, si.xly 

 days after planting, some of the larger roots of 

 which, covered with lateral branching rools, 

 were more than four feet long. The aggregate 

 length of all the roots in the hill, fine and coarse 

 were estimated at over 8000 feel. 



ScBsoiLixG AND Manlring. — C. F. Crosmau, 

 of Rochester, says, in the Ohio Cultivator,''! 

 raised 410 bushels of carrots on one-quarter of 

 an acre ; .'550 bushels of poiatoes on two acres ; 

 about (100 bushels of onions on one acre, and 

 over 1000 bushels ol' heels, (several kinds) on 

 three-quarlers of an acre. I plough with a 

 double team as deep as possible, Jiiid subsoil 

 each furrow— adding plenty of compost ma- 

 nure." 



Prokitai;i.e Crops. — The following is the 

 produce of 10 acres of land, for 'J years, belong- 

 ing to Charles Teniiev, of Riga, Monroe counly, 

 N. v.: 



40 bushels of corn per acre, at 50 ct.«., $200,00 

 30 " "wheat " at 87i cts., 262,50 



2 tons hay per acre, at $10 per ton, 200,00 

 [>'} liusliels"of clover seed, at $7, 245,00 



3 colls wintered on clover straw, 25,00 



$f):l2,50 

 The expense was esiiniated as follows; — Inter- 

 est on land, ,450 per acre, S'105; inamire .'?;t ; 

 plowing bolh <-rops, $20;.*eed, hoeing &c.. $.'!5 ; 

 iiarvesiiiig-, ¥<iO; cleaning clover seed, .S'23. — 

 Total, S2t)4; leaving a iielt gain of $tiS(>,50, or 

 $tJ8,t)5 per acre. 



Laroe Tree. — Prof. Lindly, in his ''Vegeta- 

 ble Kingdom," says, "Alartius(a careful and 

 accurate scienlilic iVaveller,) represents a scene 

 in Brazil, where some tree, of this kiiuL (locust) 

 occurred of such enormous dimensions, that 

 lifieeii Indians, with outslrelehod arms, could 

 only just embrace one of ihein. At the boliom 



