34 



®I)C iarincr's iiloutl)ln iHsitor. 



enclosures. Wtiy not instead plant pear, clierry, 

 or oilier fruit trees ? Tlicy occupy no more room 

 — are equally ornamcnlul ; and cliildren, and 

 cliildren's children shall bless tlie memory ol' 

 those who provide for thcni an unfailing fund of 

 bo(mty, ns well as beauty. — Prairie Farmer, De- 

 troit, Mich. 



Horticultural, 



WORK IN THE GARDEN 



As the time bus arrived when every one, who 

 may feel a desire to provide hi.-: family vvitli a 

 plenlifid siijiply of vegetables diuiiij; the ensuing 

 season, should begin in jiut bis garden in order, 

 we shall endeavor to direct attention to such 

 things as may be necessary to be done to bring 

 about this desirable result. Besides the henlibl'ul 

 luxuries wbicli are secured to llie tabic through 

 the products of a well arranged and cullivated 

 garden, the laudable priile of the females of one's 

 family is gratified ; and especially is Ibis the case 

 where, in addiiiou to edibles luxniiantly growing 

 therein, the lady of the homestead rriay point to 

 the flowers of her gardi-n, as so many evidences 

 of the kindly regard entertained towards her and 

 her offspring by hitn, in whom her and their love 

 is bound iiji. There may be, for aught we kriosv, 

 labors more highly intellectual than those of hor- 

 ticulture, but of ibis we are certain, that there 

 are none fnore spirittia! irj their relation to the 

 Great Author of our Being. Its toils and its fa- 

 tigues serve, if properly appreciated, to remind 

 us that the first occupation assigned to man, was 

 lliat of tending a garden — that it was in that cho- 

 sen spot be was taught the lesson, that the sweet- 

 est bread is that which is earned by labor — nor 

 are there any more pure, or better calculated to 

 make tnan contented with hi* condition; for the 

 very abimdance with uhicli his table may be sup- 

 plied, fills bis mind with emotions of gratitude 

 for the bestowal of such rich and refreshing 

 worldly comforts, aiul he rises from each succeed- 

 ing repast with thanks in his heart that bis lot 

 Lad been so pleasant and so favored. 



With this brief introduction, we woidd be per- 

 mitted to point out such work as should be im- 

 mediately set about. 



Sowing Seeds. — Prepare a liorder with a south- 

 ern exposure, by manuring liberally with unfer- 

 meiited stable manure, dig this in a spit deep, 

 rake the groniul thoroughly, then puton a cover- 

 ing of well rotted manure, an ineli or two deep, 

 rake this in well, then lay off yoiu- border in sui- 

 table divisions, to receive the ditferent kinds of 

 seed that you intend to sow. Your bed being 

 thus prepared, sow early and late cabbage seed, 

 as the Early Smyrna, Early York, IJatlersea, and 

 Sugar Loaf— the large Elat Dutch, the Drum Head 

 and Savoy. This, embracing early and late vari- 

 eties, will seciae a continuous supply of cabbag- 

 es for the table or market, as the early kinds may 

 be about being used up, the late kinds will come 

 into play. Having sown your cabbage seeds, of 

 different sorts, sow ashes thereon with a light 

 band, then rake the seed in, so as to cover them 

 lightly, when you must (lat the ground down with 

 the back of your spade. It may be well here to 

 remark that plant Iffeds should not be shaded, but 

 well exposed to sun and air. When the plants 

 come up, if they should bo attacked by lice, bugs 

 or oilier insects, mix up c(|ual i|uantilies of soot, 

 nshcs and flour of Hidphin-, and give them a very 

 slight dusting w ith the mixture, two or three days 

 in succession. JIaviiig sown your cabbage seed, 

 ill the other divisions of your prcjiared bed, sow 

 Tomatoes, Egg I'laiit, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Cel- 

 ery, and Lettuce sced>". 



Peas. — Select a loamy l>ed, and mnnii.'a it with 

 well rotted niaiuire, dig that in, rake your bed 

 and lay it off into drills 4 feet apart, sow your 

 ])cas therein thickly and cover with the hoe, pat- 

 ting down the ground as you proceed. To se- 

 cure a continuous supply you can either sow the 

 early varieties at intervals of JO days apart, or 

 sow the early and late kinds at the same time. 



Earl)/ Potatoes. — These may be planted as soon 

 ns ever the frost is out of the ground. Soimd po- 

 tatoes must be selected, as it is ustdess to plant 

 those infected with rot; and, indeed, as a precau- 

 tionary means, wc would advise that (for the gar- 

 den culture) the seed potatoes should be immers- 

 ed in brine before being (^iil into sets, and when 

 cut, that they sliould be dried in ashes, lime or 

 plaster In planting the sets, after inanucing the 



drills, we would sprinkle a mixture of charcoal 

 dust, lime and ashes over them prior to covering 

 them up. AV hen the [lOtato plants are about an 

 inch high, we would <lust over them a niixture of 

 equal parts of lime, plaster and salt, in such a 

 (juaiitity as to give the young jdants a gentle dust- 

 ing. We do not say this treatment u-ill protect 

 the potato from the rot, but it may do so, and is 

 worth a trial. 



Early Turnips. — Towards the latter end of this 

 mouth will be a good lime to prepare a bed for 

 early turnips. For this crop a compost made of 

 ti parts of cow dung, 1 of lime, and 1 of ashes, 

 will be found to be the best. Mix the whole tho- 

 roughly together by fiecpiently turning over the 

 mass, then spread one-half of the compost on the 

 bed, and dig it in the depth of the spade, rake 

 the bed well, then sjiread the other lialf and dig 

 it in half a sjiadi; rieep, and rake llie bed tho- 

 roughly, when it will be ready to receive the seed. 

 Previously, however, to sowing the seed — which 

 shoidil be the early Dutch — it should be soaked 

 in fish oil for J2 hour.=, then taken out, drained 

 and dried in ashes or lime, sowed thinly, raked 

 in and the ground conipjessed, by being palled 

 with the back of the spade. As soon as the plants 

 come up, a mixlurc of equal parts of plaster and 

 ashes should be sown thereon, so as to dust the 

 plants well,. This operation should he repeated 

 daily, each morning, until the plants get into the 

 rough leaf When the plants begin to belly, they 

 must be thinned out so as to stand about 8 inch- 

 es apart, and the weeds kept down until the 

 leaves shade the ground. Thus treated, a bed of 

 early turnips may be secured for table and mar- 

 ket — and of this, those who live near a market, 

 may be assured, that they will find ready sale and 

 good prices, as but few persons raise turnips thus 

 early for market. 



Cabbage Plants. — Those who have not been so 

 provident as to raise cabbage plants in a hot bed, 

 should seize the occasion of [ireparing a bed to 

 set them out in, so soon as the fVost is out of the 

 ground. Cabbages are gross feeders, therefore, 

 require a good deal of strong manure. To pre- 

 pare plants raised in hot beds for transplantation, 

 it ix necessary to raise up the lights ibr several 

 days, to eimre them to the weather before setting 

 iheni out. To protect them prepare a paste-like 

 mixture, of soot and flour of sulphur, moistened 

 and brought to the projier consistence, by pour- 

 ing in small quantities of boiling water at a trine. 

 When the mixture is thus brought to the consis- 

 tence of paste, and suffered to cool, as you are 

 about to set the plants out, dip the roots and stem 

 of each plant into it up to the leaves, when it 

 must be inserted in the ground. This mixture 

 will not only protect the plants fiom the attack of 

 the cut-worm, but serve as an active mannro to 

 give them an early start in their growth, a thing 

 of great importance as all garileiiers well know. 



Early Beets, Parsnips anil Carrots. — We advise 

 that a bed in each garden should be appropriated 

 [0 secure an early supply of these excellent table 

 roots. As the same soil suits each, one bed would 

 serve for a supply. The manure to be used 

 should bu thoroughly rotted: the bed be dug 

 deeply and well raked and laid off into drills 2i 

 feet apart, which should be sown aslhinly as pos- 

 sible, and covered up about two inches deep, 

 'J'hc plains lip, the beets should be thinned out to 

 stand about 8 inches apart, the parsnips G inrhe.'i 

 apart and the carrots 4 inches apart. The weeds 

 must be cleaned out and the earth loosened two 

 or three times before the crop is laid by, 



lieans. — The Lisbon, iMazagau and Windsor 

 beans may be planted as soon as the liost is out 

 of the ground. Beans dilight best in a clajey, 

 or clayey mould soil, which should be moderate- 

 ly manured, dug with care and thoroughly rak- 

 ed, 



S/nnaeh. — This excellent vegetable should be 

 sown as early as the ground can he got in good 

 order, and in older to force its grovvili, plenliliil 

 manuring, as also thorough |iulveriziiiion is iicc- 

 essjiry, 



Jiailishes and Lettuce. — As soon as the frost is 

 out ol the ground, radishes and lettuce seed may 

 sown in the open ground; to secure continiiuiis 

 supplies it is best to sow the seed at interviils of 

 leu or twelve days. When the lettuce plants are 

 of suHicii'.n size they should he lak(?R up and set 

 out to head and form into loaf 



Horse liailitli. — If yuu have not a bed of this 

 most ttealiliful and palatable 1*001, preiiare 11 beil 



on some moist border and plant one. It is cer- 

 tainly one of the best condiments used on the 

 dinner table — and is besides one of ihe very best 

 substances to moke a syrup of for colds and 

 coughs. 



Thoughts upon the Nature of Food, and the 

 Process of Nourishment, 



The suliject of proper food, or diet— and the 

 progress of digestion and nourishment, is one of 

 great importance to the farmer, not only as a 

 matter intimately connected with his own per- 

 sonal welfare, but with his business in rearing, 

 feeding and fatting cattle. This subject has en- 

 gaged the attention of Philosophers and Phjsiol- 

 ogists tor many centuries, but as it is carrieil on 

 within the systetu, where the haml cannot reach, 

 nor the eye see, we can only judge of the action 

 of certain substances by the results. This judg- 

 ment is not always correct, because we cannot 

 always know how many extra causes, Arising fVoin 

 accidents, ill heallb, imprudences in diet or exer- 

 cise, may vary the results, Kesearehes of some 

 of llie later chemisls have thrown some light upon 

 tliis matter, but allowance must be miide even for 

 them, accurate as they are in the analysis of food, 

 and of the different products of the boi^J', be- 

 cause of the variations above mentioned and the 

 lack as yet of a perfect knowledge of all tlio 

 laws of assimilation of food to the several parts 

 of the body. 



It is now received as a irulb that "we are com- 

 posed of the same substances which serve as our 

 nourishment," Beccaria, a ))hysiologist, who 

 flourished about one hundred years ago, brought 

 forward the following proposition in rei^ard to the 

 properties of food, which is undoubtedly correct, 

 viz : 



"That the muscular pa't of the animal frame 

 is derived from the albuminous constituent of 

 food," At that time he demoiistruted that wheat 

 flour, one of ihe must nutritious of vegetable 

 substances, was composed, that is made up, of 

 incredienls wholly unlike each other — one is 

 starch, the other gluten. If you take a bandftil of 

 fine flour and hold it under a little stream of wa- 

 ter, working it by the hand, the starch will be 

 worked out, and a tough stringy glutinous sub- 

 stance be left behind. This is the "gluten" of 

 wheat, or the albuminous part. Now if you take 

 both of these substances — moisten them and ex- 

 pose them to a moderate heat, you will find that 

 different action will commence in each. The 

 starch will at first ferment and yield ail acid or 

 sour substance. The eluteii will at once show a 

 tendency to putrefaction more like an animal 

 substance. This last substance, he concluded, 

 formed the muscle of animals, and the former the 

 other substances. 



More recently Liebig has divided, or classified 

 these substances into the "nutritive" and the 

 " heat jiroJucing." The gliilen being nutritive and 

 the other heat producing, Thompson, in bis 

 work on tbe food of .'inimals, observes that, ac- 

 cording to this view, "all food is destined for re- 

 pairing the waste of tin.' body and for the produc- 

 tion of animal heat, 'J'he heat maybe produced 

 by the union of tbe carbon and hydrogen of the 

 food with oxygen, (the latter gaining admission 

 to the system by the lungs, stomuch and skin,) or 

 it may be produced by the condensation of oxy- 

 gen during its suhslituiion for hydrogen and Ibr- 

 inatiou of oxygen proilucts. Although the nutri- 

 tive part of fooct rccpiires a mixture of heat pro- 

 ducing matter, yet the system of animals may be 

 supporteil on the albuininoiis, or perhaps it may 

 better be railed //fcii'iiDii.t matter alone. Wo know 

 that beasts of prey will live on animal or fibrin- 

 ous inattiM' altogether. We are told that the cows 

 on the coast of Lapland, are maintained pari of 

 the year on drird fish ; and Catlin, in his work on 

 the AinPiican Imlians, says that there are notion 

 than •J,'")0,OUO Indians who live almost exclusive- 

 ly on dried biifliilo meat. When they dry this, 

 they cut the tiesli meat into slices, sa.v half an 

 incii thick acro.<s the grain, so as to have iiit and 

 lean ill layers, and it is then hung up to tbe sun. 

 This, when to be eaten, is pouiulcd and .some- 

 times mixed with marrow. This not only nour- 

 ishes them, supplying the tiiuscular iimller f(>r 

 their bodies, but it also keeps up the heat of their 

 bodies, since they eat no vegetables whali'Ver, 



Hence it must be infirred ihiit flbriiiiius mat- 

 ter, such as meat and the gluten, is capable alone 

 ■jf producing animal heat to a ceitain dejjree. It 



