

tsttxrx. 



CONDUCTED BY ISAAC HILI4. 



PhosE who labor is the earth are the chosen people of God, %VH03E breasts he has SIADE HI9 PECUI-IAR DEP03ITE fOR SUBSTANTIAL AND OENUINE VIRTUE." — JcffCTSOlt. 



VOLUME V. 



CONCORD, N. H. NOVEMBER 30, 1843. 



NUMBER 11. 



THE FARMER'S MOIVTHI.Y VISITOR, 



PUMLlSirr.U BY 



ISAAC HILL, & SONS, 



ISSUED ON THE LAST DAY OF KVERY MONTH, 



At No. 3, Hill's Brick Block. 



j)5"Geneual AfiKXTs. — B. Cook, Keone, N H. ; Thomas 

 II. Hami'tox, \V:isliiiit;ton City, D. C; John Marsh, Wash- 

 ington St. liuKton, Mass.; Charles VVabren, Briiiley Row, 

 Worcester, Mass. 



TERMS.— Tm sinEiie subscribers, Fifty CenU. Ten per 

 ccHl. will.bs alliAvnil to the person who shall send more than 

 one subscriber. Twelve copies will be sent for the advance 

 payment of Fice Dollars ; twenty-five copies for Ten Dollars ; 

 sixty copies for Ttcnihj Dollars. The payment in every case to 

 be made in advance. 



QnCj^Jilftiey and subscripiiuns, by a rcguUition of the Post Master 

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9::5"All gentlemen who have heretofore acted as Agents are 

 requested to continue their Agency. Old suiiscribers who 

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m]t inontl)hj bisitor. 



From tlie Albany Cultivator. 



Transactions of the first New York Agricultu- 

 ral Society. 



We liave lalciy re-examined the volumes pub- 

 lished by this Society, about fifty years ago, and 

 have been surprised at the mass of valuable facts 

 the distinguished men engaged in its siip[)ort,were 

 at tliat period able toacouinulate and publish. No 

 farmer can talie up these volumes without at once 

 [lerceivin;; the vast debt we owe to the Living- 

 ston:*, De Witts, L'Hoiumedieus, Clintons, Mitch- 

 els, &c. &,c., who formed the first association for 

 the promotion of afrricultme in this state, and in 

 the exiieiiditure of labor and money did so ranch 

 to elevate llie art to its proper place. As propo- 

 sed ill a late luiiiiber of the Cultivator, we shall 

 give brief notices of soiue of the most important 

 papers to be found in the series, 



in the lirst vol. page 71, is to be found a paper 

 oil the Hessinn Jit/, ixnd much as has been writ- 

 ten on llie sulijcjct since, very little addition has 

 been been made to the mass of infiirmation con- 

 tained in this |)aper. It is from the pen of J. N. 

 Havens, Esq. Mr, Havens' statements agree 

 with our experience and observations, viz: that 

 the fly iiiiilcrgoes in most cases two transforma- 

 tions, or becomes a periect insect twice a year, 

 depositing its cl'^s linth fall and s|iring. The 

 egg laid in the fall souii wheat is hatched, and 

 tlie insect remains in the chrysalis state thioitgli 

 the winter. In the spring it emerges a perfect 

 insect, and from the eggs then deposited, are 

 produced the insects which are ready to attack 

 and destroy the (nil wheat. Burning the stubble 

 or plongliirig it under carefully and deeply, is re- 

 commeiuled by Mr. M. Burning we have not 

 tried, but deep ploughing the stubble immediate- 

 ly after harvest, we kninv to have a good effect. 



It is to the e.vperinifnt.s of Chancellor Living- 

 ston upon Giipsuin, their varied nature, and the 

 iiiiitbrin success tliat attended them when made 

 in connection with clover, that we are mainly 

 indebted for the revolution and improvement in 

 agriculture consequent on the clover and plaster 

 husbandry. The paper in which he records- his 

 experimeiit.s, commencing in 1789, is one of the 

 most interesting in the volume. The inferences 

 to which the Chancellor was led, viz: that plaster 

 produces the be.it effect when used in connection 

 with clover- that it is comparatively useless on 

 wet moist soils— that its action is very little aided 

 by the natural fertility of the soil — that on dry 

 .soils it is of great valnt; to Indian corn — and that 

 in most cases if pro<luces no effect near the sea, 

 are such as ex|iKriencc has confirmed. From 

 some of his ex|)erinieiits he w;is led to infer that 

 8 bushels of pulverized limestone was equal in 

 effect to (') biisiiols of gypsum, but on clover, we 

 are conrideiii the ilisproportion would be found 

 ftr greater than llii?. 



The paper of Mr, L'llommedieu, on the Prep- 

 aration of Manures, contains many hints that 

 could scarcely fail of improving the practice of 

 our best farmers. Ili.s remarks on composts 

 (nade of turf and barnyard manures, swamp 

 mud, leached ashes, &c., are so much in advance 

 of the age in which they were written, that they 

 seem ratiier to have been penned by a cotempo- 

 rary of Liebig and Dana. 



At the lime this volume was prepared, the 

 growing and preparation of Clover Seed for mar- 

 ket, was much less common than it now is, and 

 Suffolk, 011 Long Island, produced and sold more 

 than all the rest of the slate, Mr. L'H. gives a 

 paper on gathering and threshing it, from which 

 it appears in the modern mode of threshing and 

 cleaning by water or horse power,a vast saving of 

 labor has been effected. Mr. L'H. says the great- 

 est quantity be has? known grown on an acre, was 

 four bushels and sixteen quarts. Such a prod- 

 uct as this, any where, would be considered enor- 

 mous. 



Ill this volume is an account of a crop of In- 

 dian Corn, raised at Hoboken, by Mr. J. Stevens, 

 amounting to 118 bushels, 'i quarts per acre. 

 This crop and another were raised on a wager; 

 were measured accurately, and the result excited 

 much attention, it being one of the first of those 

 large crops of that grain that have now become 

 so common, .Mr. Stevens planted his corn in 

 double rows, 5i feet apart in this manner: 



The sides of these triangles being 7 inches. 

 The corn was <libbled 3^ inches deep, one kernel 

 in a hole, which was then filled vvith rotten dung. 



One of the earliest as well as ablest memoirs 

 on the Salt Sprins:s of the state, is to be found in 

 this volume, tioiii the pen of Dr. B. DeWitt. To 

 us who have so long been conversant with that 

 section of country, bis description conies with 

 the freshness of our early impressions, ai.d we 

 almost forget that more than -10 years have passed 

 since wc first heard of Salt Point, or tlie paper 

 before us was niitioii. One of the most remark- 

 able changes in the vicinity of the Onondaga 

 Salines, which has taken place since Dr. DeWilt 

 examined the district, is in the health of the re- 

 gion. The town of Salina now contains a popu- 

 lation of some ]'2,000; and the number of cleaths 

 annually, docs not greatly exceed that which ex- 

 isted at the time Dr. D. wrote. The cultivation 

 of the country, the lowering of tlie lake, and the 

 draining of the swamps and marshes, have con- 

 ferred a degree of salubrity rircly equalled. One 

 cannot avoid recognizing ilie advantages of the 

 late geological survey and explorations of the 

 state, when they contrast the knowledge acquired 

 with the crude speculations as to the source of 

 our brines so current at that time. The quanti- 

 ty of salt made annually', (17!.)7,) is estimated at 

 60,000 bushels. The product of this year, J8<W, 

 will not vary far from four millions of biisliel.s 



Simeon DcVVitt has given his method of Pre- 

 serrine; Butter, so as to avoid the rancidity so 

 common and so disagreeable. A cask of suffi- 

 cient size is provided, into which brine made 

 from good salt, as strong as possible, a little salt- 

 petre adrled, an<l then boiled and skimmed to in- 

 sure purity, is poured, al'ter the ves.sel has been 

 previously soaked and washed in another brine. 

 The butter is then made into suitable rolls, as it 

 comes from the dairy or is purchased in the mar- 

 ket, and put into the liriiie. To keep this butter 

 |ierfectly under the brine, and on this the sweet- 

 ness is mainly depending, a circular hoard of 

 nearly the size of the cask is provided, in the 

 centre of which a round stick is .secured, the 

 iipjier end of which rises above the cask. Two 

 wire staples are driven into the top of the cask, 

 and a cord (lassiiig from one thrnngh or over the 

 lop of the slick, and secured to the otht-r effec- 



tually, keeps the butter below the surface of the 

 brine. 



We think this a good method of keeping but- 

 ter sweet, but the best method we have yet seen 

 tried, is to pack the butler while perfectly sweet, 

 in firkins, heaped up close, and then throw them 

 into a vat supplied with spring water of a low 

 temperature, or else into a well of the same kind. 

 Exclusion of air and a low temjierature, are thus 

 both secured, and these points gained,butter well 

 worked and sweet, may be kept so for an indefi- 

 nite period of time. 



Nearly 100 pages of the 2d volume are occii- 

 |)ied by a series of papers on Sheep, by Mr, Liv- 

 ingston. Mr. L. was among the first introducers 

 of the Merino into this country, and we here find 

 one of the earliest descriptions of this sheep, 

 ipiality of wool, and its probable effect on the 

 improvement of our native sheep by crosses. 

 What was theory in Chancellor L., has become 

 fact in practice, and though his labors were de- 

 cried and underrated by many, the result has 

 been felt in every part of the United States. The 

 agriculturists wiil not be apt to forget the man 

 who was mainly instrumental in bringing gypsum 

 into use, and introducing the Merino into the 

 country, and this distinguished honor can fairly 

 be claimed for Mr. Livingston. 



Soaking Seed Wheat in brine, and then drying it 

 in lime, to prevent smut, was first brought before 

 the farmers of New York in these volumes, and 

 wherever adopted produced the happiest results. 

 The public spirited farmers on the east of the 

 Cayuga lake, early availed themselves of this 

 preventive, and with such success, that large 

 quantitiesof Cayuga wheat found its way to other 

 places for seed ; and it was for years, and per- 

 haps still is, believed by many, that the practice 

 of brining and liming originated hi the district 

 named. Strange as it may seem, with all the 

 certainty of exemption from smut this treatment 

 of wheat offers, there are very few farms where 

 the practice of liming is so carried out as to ef- 

 fectually exclude smut from the fields. Greater 

 attention to this point would be for the benefit of 

 all parties concened. 



One of the most destructive insects to the grain 

 grower in the southern anil middle states, and 

 occasionally farther north, is the true Weevil, 

 which attacks the wheat in the sheaf or the bin. 

 Mr. L'Hommedieii states that this insect may be 

 driven from granaries, mills, &c., by sprinkling 

 over the wheat fine nnsla<-ked lime, five or six 

 handfuls to every five bushels, as it is shoveled 

 into the bins. When wanted for use, the fanning 

 mill will blow off the lime, as well as the dust 

 made by the weevil from the wheat. Wheat we 

 understand is now successfully preserved in the 

 south, by heating a hogshead turned bottom up- 

 wards over a coal fire, as hot as it can be made, 

 and while hot, filling it with wheat and heading 

 it carefully up. This destroys what weevils there 

 may be in the grain, and effelually excludes 

 others from entering. 



There are papers from E. C Genet, on several 

 subjects, in one of which he describes the benefit 

 he derive<l from feeding some valuable, but dis- 

 eased and weak Merino Sheep wiih milk. Their 

 restoration was complete, and what was singular, 

 while the lest of his flock suffered severely iVoiii 

 the scab, the milk fed shccii were pcrli'ctly ex- 

 empt. In Switzerland, and some parts of France, 

 the best vinegar is made from the whey of milk, 

 by a very simple process. The whey, carefully 

 clarified, is poured into cask.s, wiih aromatic 

 herbs and eider blossoms, to give flavor and color 

 as desired, and exposed in open air to the sun, 

 where it soon acipiircs an uncommon degree of 

 acidity. We think that in the newly settled parts 

 of our western states, where cider for vinegar is 

 not to lie bad, this method of proviiliiig an article 

 so essential to the health and coiiifoit of a family 

 might ho found useful. 



