\oLVII.— No.l9. 



AND HORTICULTITRAL JOURNAL. 



149 



annually at least 40 acres of grain, not one failure I is a sulKcient depth. This I have found to be an 

 has been sustained either in wheat or in any other economical and excellent substitute, and the pecu- 



crop, and I will venture to vouch, few farmers in 

 England could make a similar assertion. In fact, 

 I esteem my vcheat crop as certain as any other ; 

 and as the plan I have pursued has been uniform- 

 ly successful, a sketch of it may be useful to my 

 brotlier agriculturists. The fields appropriated for 

 wheat, in the rotation, are thrown up into drills 



liar advantage I derive from this practice is, tliat 

 it enables mc to improve by back fields by laying 

 upon them the undivideil riches of the barnyard. 



In no part, however, of the system has the man- 

 agement I have pursued been more successful 

 than in the melioration and improvement of my 

 marshes. When I first commenced operatioiiK 



during the preceding fall which not only renders { upon them, they were a perfect nest of weeds, and 

 the soil more mellow, by exposing a larger surface 

 to the frost, but helps to destroy the weeds, pre- 

 vents the land from being washed by the fall and 

 .spring rains, and enables me to work it much ear- 

 lier in the spring. To sow early is essential to the 

 .success of this crop ; for since the severity of our 

 winters renders the use of our winter grain so pre- 

 carious, it is indispensible that our farmers should, 

 by early diligence and activity in the Spring, rem- 

 edy this disadvantage to which the chmate sub- 

 jects us. I have raised hitherto but one variety 

 of wheat the bearded kind, imported from Boston 

 by the Central Board about nine years ago. 1 ob- 

 tained my seed from a crop raised at Willowpark 

 by 3Ir. Young. Befoi'e sowing I use every pre- 

 caution in pickling and linieing, according to the 

 most approved directions — but this care has been 

 liithcrto bountifully rewarded by the excellence 

 and cleanliness of my crop. The rust or blight 

 Jias never struck it ; and I regard the introduc- 

 tion of this variety as a benefit to our agriculture 

 of inestimable value. 



In my opinion it would be of essential advan- 

 tage to our farming interests, were the turnip iius- 

 bandry more widely prosecuted, fo«, independent- 

 ly of the value of the root ; the fallow is an ex- 

 cellent preparation for the ensuing crop of wheat 

 or barley. IMany farmers run away with the be- 

 lief that turnips are an unsafe crop, on account of 

 the ravages of the fly ; but I have now raised them 

 for eight years without a failure, and the appear- 

 ance of four acres of all kinds which I have this 

 season is most promising, although the soil lias 

 been enriched only with the marsh mud — not a 

 cart load of barn manure being ajiplied to it — 

 The following niethod will render a turnip crop 

 as certain as any other : — Select a loamy soil, 

 plough and drill it as if for potatoes, deposit short 

 dung (for it is necessary that the manure be well 



the tliistle especially had obtained on them an al 

 most indisputable dominion. The upper surface, 

 from a long course of cropping, without the ap- 

 plication of manure, was completely exhausted ; in 

 the language of Sir Arthur Young, they were a 

 hungry wolfish surface, and the labor thus before 

 me was not only to renovate their exhausted 

 strength, but to cleanse them of this host of weeds. 

 Contrary to the prejudice of many of our farmers, 



that deep ploughing would ruin" the productive-! The railway requires one man and four horses 

 ness of the marsh, I threw up a deep furrow, and 1 1<^ transport 31 tons four mile.-< i^er hour, 

 have now ascertained that the mixing of this vir- 1 The canal requires 2 men, 1 boy and 2 horses, 

 gin mould with the exhausted soil has rendered it i ^° transport 30 tons 2 miles per hour, 

 quite as fertile as when reclaimed from the sea. The railway may be attended and kept in re- 

 Deep ploughing too, both on my marshes and up- i P^^"' f""" one-tenlh that of a canal. 



will tend to enlighten the general practice, and to 

 recal some part of the public attention to our ag- 

 ricultural improvement, tny wishes and hopes will 

 be amply gratified. 1 confess that I feel an en- 

 thu.siastic desire to see the spirit which once ani- 

 mated the Province revivified. It is at least a 

 harmless and pardonable wish, and I must there- 

 fore beg an apology from your readers if I claim 

 their attention, until I point out by what course 

 this can best be obtained. 



(To be continued.) 



RAIL ROADS. 



A correspondent of the Boston Daily AdvertFs- 

 er, gives the following as the advantages by which 

 Rail Roads are distinguijhed above Canals. 



Tlic railway requires but one-third the ([uantity 

 of land tliat is required for a canal, exclusive of 

 ponds, reservoirs and feeders. 



land, has had the effect of nearly rooting out the 

 thistle, for when I first went to the farm, I could 

 not spare either time or labor to weed more than 

 one of my grain fields ; but this season it has cost 

 me little or no trouble to weed 33 acres, which I 

 have under grain. It is a mistaken idea which 

 some of my neighbors entertain, that the scythe is 

 sufiicient, for I know many fields where the this- 

 tle has been cut down year after year, in this way; 

 and yet, year after year, they spring up with a re- 

 newed and irrepressible fertiHty. The following 

 rotation I have found to answer well upon our 

 marshes. 



1 Year, Oats sown upon the lee furrow 



2 do. Peas, black, excellent for fattening 

 pigs or feeding horses 



3 do. Wheat 



4 do. Green crop in drills, potatoes 



5 do. Wheat 

 and after this lay it down in the grass, giving it a- 

 bundance of good clover and timotlij- seed. By 

 this mode of cultivation the land will be rendered 

 clean, and the produce will at least be doubled. 



For the last four or five vears I have threshed 



decomposed) in the drills, sowing them as soon as : my grain with a threshing machine, wliich I piir 

 made, and while the earth is moist and mellow 

 Nu exertion should be spared to obtain fresh seed, 

 and it would be advisable to prove its quality be- 



chased from Agricola. It cost me in the first in 

 stance a considerable sum, but I do not now re- 



Railways give the greatest possible facility to 

 travellers. Canals retard them. 



Railways may be easily passed in all places re- 

 quired. Canals only by bridges. 



Radways interfere with no water privileges 



Canals destroy many. 



Railways are subject to no interruptions, except 

 from snow, which is easily removed. 



Canals are subject to he interrupted by droughts, 

 floods, frosts, leakages and locks. ' 



Railways carry their freight to the doors of the 

 warehouses. 



Canals deliver their freight Upon the wharf. 



A railway can bo constructed for half the cost 

 of a canal per mile. 



A railway may be used twelve months in the 

 year. A canal but seven inontlis. 



The toll of passengers will pay the interest oir 

 the cost of a raiivvny. 



The toll of passengers on a canal is very 

 trifling. 



Half the common rates of toll on a canal wilJ- 

 be sufiicient to pay the whole expense of trans- 

 portation on a railway, including the toll. 



Mountainous countriee are easily surmounted by 

 . { railways. Canals can never get over them. 



Rivers and streams are much more easily pass- 



fore placing it in the drills by sowing some in a the flail, at least by .5 per cent, but the expense is 

 flower-pot to see whether it germinate rapidly and now comjiaratively nothing. Where manual la- 



with vigor. Two or three ]>ounds are required bor is so expensive, and difficult to be procured 

 per acie, and it ought to be buried, at least, one as in this Province, I am at a loss to conceive v. hy 

 By being' placed at this deptli the these have not been more generally introduced 



gret the outla v, as it not only threshes cleaner than ■ ^d by railways than they can be by canals. 



Railways will be the pride of New lOugland ; 

 they will unite them in one common centre, con- 

 nect them in one. common interest, and raise them 



inch deej). 



fibres draw more moisture, and sustenance for the 

 infant plant is more speedily obtained from the 

 manure. Their growth will consequently be 

 quicker, which is a matter of first consequence, 

 in order to put them beyond the reach of the fly, 

 for the danger from the insect is only while the 

 plants have put forth the germ or seed leaf. By 

 being thickly sown they protect each other from 

 the sun, and afford abundance to be cut off hy the 

 fly and the hoe. 



To all my lands near the marsh mud I use no 

 barnyard manure ; for besidee carting mud from 

 the banks of the rivsr, whe»ever the situation of 

 the upland field to be enriched renders it adTiaa- 

 bte, I dig mud from my marsh fields where there 



Few farmers perhaps account their own indi- 

 vidual till.Tge extensive enough to warrant the ex- 

 penditure of the sum which a mill would cost, but 

 could not six or seven unite and erect one for 

 their common benefit ? A dozen threshing mills, 

 of effective force and approved construction, scat- 

 tered throughout the settlements of Windsor, Fal- 

 mouth and Newport, would thresh all the graii. 

 i'aise<l in them, and the saving which would ac- 

 erue in two years would more than repay the first 

 outlay. 



Such, Mr. Editor, are a few hints deriTed from 

 my one exp»rie»ce and observation, which I have 

 annised a leisure hour in embodying in a plain and 

 uaostentatioBs mauner, for the public eye. If they 



to eminence and glory by one common operation. 



[Prepared by llie Editor.] 



BEES. 



FROM THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIKIV. 



fConcludct! from page 142. y 

 A young bee can be readily distinguished fioirt 

 an old one, by the greenish colored down that 

 covers it, and which it loses by the wear and tear 

 of hard labor ; and if the bee be not destroyed 

 before the season is oVer, this down entirely dis- 

 appears, and the ground work of the insect is seen, 

 white or black. On a close examination, very few 

 of these black or aged bees, will be seen at the 

 opening of the spring, as not having the stamina 

 of those that are younger, they perish from ing. 

 bility to encounter the vicissitudes of wiuter.. 



