Vol.VH No. 3d. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



307 



card or stiff paper, which may be stuck upon a pin. 



Other insects may be transfixed through the 

 thorax, or iip])er side of the trunk. 



Having impaled your insects, the next thing to 

 be done is to set them, or display their parts. — 

 The best time for doing this is not till they have 

 begun to stiffen, but before they are become quite 

 stift. If attempted soon after they are killed, the 

 parts, unless you keep them in the intended posi- 

 tion by means of pins or braces, will not retain 

 it: and if after they are become too stiff, they are 

 liable to be broken. Not only should the anten- 

 nce (horns) and palpi (feelers) be extended so as to 

 be readily seen ; but the legs and often the wings, 

 ought to be placed in their natural position ; all of 

 which tends much to the beauty of your speci- 

 mens, and adapts them for more ready examina- 

 tion. 



For setting-boards you may use cork, or a spe- 

 cies of fungus, sometimes called pith-wood : this 

 last will answer a good purpose, if you select such 

 pieces as are soft. 



When sufficiently dried, your insects should be 

 transferred from the setting boards, either to their 

 place in your cabinet, or to your store-box. 



Caterpillars and other larvse of insects may be 

 preserved in spirits. 



As certain mites, moths, &c. prey upon dead 

 insects, you may wish to know how they may he 

 kept out of your drawers or boxes, or banished 

 when detected there. Camphor is the generd 

 remedy recommended. Scatter some roughlj^ 

 powdered over the bottom of your drawers, an(l 

 be careful to renew it when evaporated. It fe 

 necessary, however, sometimes, to bake yourspee- 

 jmens in an oven ; — the heat must not be so great 

 as to scorch. 



The specimens sent you by S. D. of Dorchester, 

 seem to have been injured by moulding. This 

 may be prevented by having them thoroughly 

 dried before they are stored in boxes, and by 

 keeping them from a damp atmosphere. If done 

 in season, mould may be removed by gently brush- 

 ing with a camel's hair [)encil, dipped in spirits 

 of wine. L. 



. Pelerhorovgh, A*. H. April 14. 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FARMEK. 



NEGLECTED GR.AVE YARDS. 



Mr Editor — I wish to call your attention to the 

 subject of repairing, clearing, and ornamenting the 

 burial grounds of New England. These enclosures 

 are cotiiuionly neglected by the sexton, and ])re- 

 sent to the curious traveller, an ugly collection of 

 slate slabs, of weeds, and rank or dried grass. A 

 small effort in each sexton or clergyman, would 

 suffice to awaken attention, to bring to the recol- 

 lection of some, and to the fancy of all, a scene 

 which every village should present, a grove sacred , 

 to the dead and to their recollection, to calm re- 

 ligious conversation, and to melancholy musing — 1 

 inclosed with shrubbery, and evergreen, and dig- 1 

 nified by the lofty maple, and elm, and oak, and I 

 guarded by a living hedge of hawthorn. 



Every sexton should procure some oak, elm 

 and locust seed, and make it a part of his voca 

 tion to scatter it for chance growth. 



PHILOSOPHY. 



SOWING GRASS SEEDS. 



(By the Edilor.) 

 -A. diversity of opinion exists relative to the best 

 time for sowing grass seeds. Some prefsr the 



fall ; but the nuijority of those who have wristen 

 on the subject reconunend sowing in the spring ; 

 and that season, so far as our acquaintance ex- 

 tends, is most generally chosen. European writers 

 direct, even when grass seed is sown on the same 

 ground with winter grain, to sow the grass seed in 

 the spring, and harroiv it in. They say that the 

 harrowing will on the whole be of service to the 

 grain, though a few of the plants will be torn up 

 by the process. The Hon. Richard Peters, like- 

 wise directed to " harrow your winter grain in the 

 spring, in the direction of the seed furrows, or 

 drills, and be not afraid of disturbing a few plants ; 

 manifold produce will remunerate for the destroy- 

 ed." 



The Farmer's Assistant says, " Clover may be 

 sown with barley, oats, or spring wheat, when 

 that article is raised ; or it may be sown with 

 winter wheat in the fall, if the land be dry, and 

 warmly exposed ; or in the spring when it should 

 be lightly harrowed in." The Domestic Encyclo- 

 pedia asserts that " experienced farmers generally 

 prefer sowing clover with wheat rather than with 

 barley or oats, as in dry seasons the clover fre- 

 quently over])owers the oats or barley, and if it be 

 sown late in order to obviate this evil, it often 

 fails and the crop is lost for that season. Proba- 

 bly the diversity of opinion respecting the 

 l)roper time of sowing clover seed may arise from 

 the difference in the nature of the soil on which 

 trials have been made. An experienced agricul- 

 turist, (Edward Dufficid, Esq. of Philadelphia 

 County) assures Dr Mease that he repeatedly fail- 

 ed in obtaining a crop, when he sowed his clover 

 in autumn, or winter ; and he is uniformly suc- 

 cessful when he sows in the spring. His soil is a 

 light loam." 



On the other hand, an experienced and scien- 

 tific cultivator whose suggestions on this subject 

 were published in the New England Farmer, vol. 

 vi. p. 238, dated Weston, and signed J. M. G. says 

 "dear bought experience has taught me the inef- 

 ficacy of sowing grass seed in spring with grain ; 

 it was a custom imported with the ancestors of 

 the country from old England, where the cloudy 

 sunnners, and moist climate will warrant a prac- 

 tice, which under our clear sky, and powerful sun, 

 is altogether unsuitable. I must add that grass 

 sown in the fall itnperiously requires to be rolled 

 in the spring as soon as the ground is in fit order ; 

 otherwise the small plants, slightly rooted yet, and 

 heaved up by the frost, will suffer much, perhajis 

 total destruction ; and truly among the many uses 

 to which the roller may be applied, none, perhaps, 

 would be more valuable than to roll all grass lands 

 in spring. The plants suffer from the wind and 

 from the heat, and this being the case more or less 

 every spring, it must necessarily bring on a pre- 

 mature decay, which the yearly use of the roller 

 at that season, might prevent." 



We cannot reconcile these authorities ; but it is 

 probable that both in fall and spring sowing of 

 grass seeds there may be successful and unfavora- 

 ble results, according to circumstances of soil, 

 season, &c. Fall sown grass seeds are hable to 

 be winter-killed, or destroyed by frost ; spring 

 sown grass seeds may perish by drought and heat. 

 But, whenever sown, there will be less danger 

 either from frost or drought, if the seed is well 

 covered with a harrow, and the ground pressed 

 on it with a roller. 



Young's Farmer's Calendar, under the date of 

 August, says " This is the best season of the whole 



year for laymg down land to grass ; and no othTr 

 IS admissible for it on strong, wet, or heavy soils. 

 Spring sowings with grain may succeed, and do 

 olien, but that they are hazardous, I know from 

 forty years' experience." 



There is likewise a great ditPerence of opinion 

 as respects the quantity of seed to be .sown when 

 land is laid down to grass. Sir John Sinclair 

 says, " it is a great error, in laying land down to 

 grass, to sow an insufficient quantity of .seeds. In 

 general, 12 or 14 lbs. of clover is the usual aver- 

 age allowance. But that quantity it is contended, 

 ought greatly to be increased, and in many cases 

 doubled." The Farmer's Assistant tells us that 

 " the quantity of red clover seed to be sown on the 

 acre is about fourteen pounds, and none but clean 

 seed ought to be sown." 



The " Memoirs of the Board of Agriculture of 

 the State of New York," vol. ii. p. 30, in giving 

 an account of the methods of culture adopted by 

 farmers in Rensselaer County, state that " Farmers 

 differ in opinion in regard to the most suitable 

 quantity of seed. S. Germond, H. Worthington, 

 C. Porter, C. R. Colden, and some others say that 

 eight quarts of the mixture of clover and timothy 

 seed should be sown on every acre. And Col. J. 

 Cai))enter sows sixteen quarts on an acre. He 

 says when the grass and clover grow very thick, 

 it will be more tender feed, and more fine hay, 

 and that it will not run out so soon. But J. Phil- 

 lips, G. Eddy, and many others, consider four 

 quarts as sufficient. 



" All agree that the proportions of the mixture 

 of the seeds should be governed by the nature of 

 the soil. That in a sandy soil three-fourths of the 

 seed should be clover — in clay loam it should be 

 equal parts, in clay soil but one-fourth clover 

 seed. 



" There should beat least a bushel of plaster 

 sown on every acre of clover and grass land of a 

 sandy, gravelly, or loamy soil. Also on all upland 

 natural meadows. Two bushels per acre arc much 

 better than one on sandy or gravelly soil." 



Payson Williams, Esq. of Fitchburgh, Mass. 

 who received a ])remium from the Mass. Agr. So- 

 ciety, for the greatest quantity of spring wheat, 

 raised by him in the summer of 1822, in giving a 

 description of the mode of culture by him adopt- 

 ed, says, " the quantity of grass seed, used by me 

 is never less than twelve pounds of clover,and one 

 peck of herd's grats (timothy) to the acre. Here, 

 permit me to observe, that innumerable are the in- 

 stances in tills country, where the farmer fails in 

 his grass crops by not allowing seed enough ; and 

 what is wors^, the little he does give, with a spar- 

 ing hand is s.iffered to take its chance under that 

 pest of agriculture called the bush harrow, which 

 not only drags stones and other loose matters into 

 heaps, but leaves the soil dead and heavy, and 

 does not cover the seed deep enough to strive 

 with our July drought effectually." 



We have, however been verbally assured by 

 very correct and scientific agriculturists, that 6 or 

 7 pounils of clover seed, tehtre the ground is highly 

 manured is amply sufficient, and that by exceeding 

 that quantity, the plants so shade and stifle each 

 other, that there is little substance in the hay made 

 from them. No doubt much depends on the qual- 

 ity and richness of the soil. The poorer the soil 

 the greater the quantity of grass seed. Clover 

 seed of a bright yellow, with a good quantity of 

 the purple and "brown colored seed among it 

 (which shows the maturity of the seed) should be 

 preferred. 



