cus 



CIO 



105 



water, put two pounds and three 

 quartersof good brown sugar. Stir 

 it well. When the sugar is dissolv- 

 ed, put the wine into a cask not 

 stopped. When the tirst fermen- 

 tation is over, bung it up tightly, 

 and in six nrionths it will be tit for 

 bottling. 



CUSTOM, an habitual man- 

 ner of doing anything. Methods 

 of agriculture, as well as methods 

 of doinj; other things, are not sel- 

 dom founded merely on custom. 

 Farmer? do many things, for which 

 they can assign no other reason 

 than custom. They usually give 

 themselves little or no trouble in 

 thinking, or in examining their 

 methods of culture, which have 

 been handed down from father to 

 son, from time immemorial. 



In some countries, this practice 

 answers tolerably well. It does 

 best in old countries, where meth- 

 ods, which have not been found to 

 answer well, have been gradually 

 laid aside in a long course of years. 

 But this customary culture has a 

 very pernicious effect, when igno- 

 rant farmers remove to a ditferent 

 climate. They naturally continue 

 in the ways to which they have 

 been accustomed. Their crops 

 often prove to be unsuitable to the 

 region they inhabit. They plant, 

 sow and harvest, at the wrong sea- 

 sons. They sow seeds in unsuita- 

 ble soils. The conseqrsences are, 

 that their labour is misapplied, 

 their time is lost, they grow poor 

 and disheartened. Perhaps they 

 remove to other places, hoping 

 to mend their circumstances ; 

 and when they come thither, 

 their habitual methods will answer 

 14 



still worse, rather than better, un- 

 less they go back to their first sit- 

 uation, or towards it. 



CUTTINGS OR SLIPS," in gar- 

 dening, the branches or sprigs of 

 trees, or plants, cut or slipped ofT, 

 to set again, which is done in any 

 moist fine earth. The best time 

 for this operation, is from the mid- 

 dle of August to the middle of 

 April ; but when it is done, the 

 sap ought not to be too much in 

 the top ; neither must it be very 

 dry or scanty, for the sap in the 

 branches assists it to strike roots. 

 If done in the spring, let them not 

 fail of having water in the summer. 

 In providing them, such branches 

 as have burs, knobs or joints, are 

 to be cut off, &c. and the leaves 

 are to be stripped ofT so far as 

 they are placed in the earth, leav- 

 ing no side branch. Small top 

 sprigs, of two or three years 

 growth, are the best for this op- 

 eration." Did. of Arts, 



Cuttings of the grape vine, 

 gooseberry, willow and currants, 

 are easily made to strike root; 

 those taken from the quince will 

 commonly, and the apple tree will 

 sometimes do so, if the earth be 

 kept very moist. It is best to set 

 them a good depth in the earth, 

 not less than twelve or fifteen 

 inches, or the greater part of their 

 whole length. In this country, 

 the best time that I have found to 

 set them is in April. It should be 

 done as soon as the frost is quite 

 out of the ground. 



CION, OR SCION, a young sprig 

 or sprout of a tree. Scions, for 

 grafting, should always be taken 

 from the most thrifty trees, not 



