50 [Senate 



the grape will succeed. I know in the vicinity of New-York, peach- 

 es do not succeed well, but grapes flourish. 



.JOHN P. HAFF. 



Pu7npkins, Melons, ^'c. 



Permit me to give you a brief account of my mode of cultivating 

 pumpkins, squashes, melons, and Lima and bush beans, all of which 

 I plant early in the spring, about the fifteenth of April in pots under 

 a small glass frame. In this way I get my seed up; and by the time 

 frost is done, my plants in the pots have sufficient root to hold the 

 earth in the pot, my ground being prepared for their reception. I 

 shove the plant from the pot with the earth attached, so as not to dis- 

 turb the root, and then let it take its chance. In this way, I have 

 early and good crops; and in fact, better than in the ordinary way. 

 For proof, my main crop of pumpkins and squashes, which I planted 

 about the tenth of May with my corn; the weather or season being- 

 very wet, the seed did not come up but rotted in the ground; and 

 the few that did get up, produced nothing. I then had my plants in 

 pots to supply their places; the yield was good; some of the best, I 

 sent to the Fair. My crop of Lima beans from pots, were the best 

 beans. I had those planted the first of May all rotted in the ground, 

 and were again planted over; the most of the second planting fail- 

 ed; I supplied their places with the plants from my pots, and had a 

 good crop. 



For experiment sake, I planted a small piece of my cornfield with 

 corn and potatoes in the same hill four feet apart, the usual distance 

 for corn. In each hill I placed four grains of corn and two setts of 

 potatoes; when the corn came up, I pulled out two spears, leaving 

 two with two setts of potatoes; the corn was plowed twice and hoed 

 twice. In working the corn, I worked'the potatoes. The only ma- 

 nure used, was a teacup full of ashes to the hill. In this case, I had 

 a good yield of corn, and my best potatoes were those raised by the 

 corn; and the corn and potatoes exhibited at the Fair, were those 

 raised together. My main crop of potatoes was adjoining my corn 

 in the same field. This patch I manured in the hill with barn yard 

 manure, one shovel full to -the hill of potatoes. The season being- 

 very wet, the potatoes were small and much eaten with the grub and 

 fit only for feed for cattle and hogs. 



My vegetable garden I manure in the fall; spade in the manure, 

 and let it lie in ridges for the frost to act upon it in the spring. I 

 again manure it and spade it up, rake it over and plant my seed. 

 My beets I plant twelve inches asunder in rows; between ihe rows I 

 plant two rows of spinach for the purpose of keeping the weeds 

 down and giving the plants room to grow; I use a small shoving hoe 

 between the rows of spinach and beets. If done in the morning be- 

 fore the sun is up, the weeds are crisp and cut easy; and when the 

 sun gets up, they soon wither and die, leaving nothing but the plant 

 to receive the richness of the soil. The spinach is of rapid growth., 

 and comes out about the time the beets want to be thinned out and 

 weeded in the rows I leave the beets from four to six inches apart 



