414 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



July It, 18gg. 



JVeic Discovery in the Preparation oj Flax^K 

 Frerch paper states, that an inhabitant of Chat- 

 eau-Thierry, has discovered a mode of giving to 

 prepared hemp and flax, the fineness, softness, and 

 whiteness of cotton, by impregnating those sub- 

 stances with oil, and tK>n exposing them, during 

 fifteen or twenty dajs to the action ot frost, be- 

 tween two layers of snow. By this means all the 

 inconvenience of the ordinary and tedious pro- 

 cess of stepping them in stagnant water will be 

 avoided. 



Silk. The Boston Patriot states that in conse- 



<juence of some little encouragement, given by the 

 Legislature of Massachusetts to the production of 

 silk, several persons in that State have undertaken 

 the business. We recommend to them to procure 

 Mr Vernon's Work on Mulberry Trees and Silk 

 Worms, one of the best, if not altogether the best 

 practical treatise on this subject, that has been 

 published. It may be found at Hilliard, Gray & 

 Go's, in Boston. — Prov. Amer. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, JULY 17, 1829. 



Erratum — Id Mr Lowell's letter to Gen. Dearborn, in 



ihe last No. of the N. E. Farmer, page 401, line 2(5 from the 

 bottom of the column, the word I'ltiiicum is printed bv mistake 

 for xa(U mecum. 



CLOSE OF THE SEVENTH VOLUME OF 

 THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



We avail ourselves of the present stage in the 

 progress of our labors to profter our gratitude to 

 the public ill general, and to tender our best ac- 

 knowlodgmontu to patroiis and correspondents in 

 particular, for past kindness, and to soUcit the con- 

 tinuance of future favors. It is now seven years 

 since the commencement of the New tingland 

 Farmer ; during which jieriod we have labored 

 with more zeal than ability, with more industry 

 than talent.*, to diffuse that knowledge which is 

 power to the Husbandman, and that hght which 

 is life to the Horticulturist. 



Though we may not boast of having heralded 

 or accomplished any very great improvements in 

 the arts to which our paper is devoted, still, well 

 meant endeavors to be useful, even if not always 

 well directed, are rarely wholly inefficient. We 

 claim no other merit for personal exertions than 

 what is due to some share of industry, and good 

 intentions. But, we think the New England 

 Farmer, with the aid of its intelligent and patriot- 

 ic correspondents, has served as a focus to con- 

 dense, and a reflector to distribute those rays of 

 profitable intelligence, every beam of which indi- 

 cates sources of wealth of more value to the coun- 

 try than all the gold of Carolina. Our columns 

 may also be compared to chandeliers, furnished 

 by our correspondents with the lights of science, 

 so disposed that mankind may derive extensive 

 and permanent benefits from their radiations. 



Farmers and gardeners appear to ajipreciate 

 higher than formerly the benefits derivative from 

 a publication like ours ; a work not merely filled 

 to allure the transient glance of idle curiosity, but 

 to excite and reward the patient and persevering 

 search for utility — a work printed in periodical 

 numbers, not merely of temporary use and amuse- 

 ment, but furnishing a series of volumes, to be 

 consulted c'jaln and again as the exigencies of the 



cultivator's art, and the requirements of revolving 

 seasons may call for its essays and prescriptions. 



The spirit which has recently been excited with 

 regard to Horticulture, and the acquisitions which 

 are continually rewarding enlightened eftbrts to 

 improve that art, render a journal like ours, at 

 least in part devoted to gardening almost indis- 

 pensable. " Gardening," said Dr Deane, " is a 

 kind of agriculture. It may be considered as farm- 

 ing in miniature. It is conversant in preparing 

 ground for different kinds of seeds, and in treat- 

 ing them pro])erly during their growth. The gar- 

 den is the fittest ])lace to make the first experi- 

 ments in, with exotic roots and seeds, as the loss 

 is inconsiderable if they should not prove agreea- 

 ble to the climate." From intelligent and patri- 

 otic horticulturists we may anticipate not only 

 new kinds of vegetables, but improved seeds, 

 roots, scions, &c. of the kinds already in cultiva- 

 tion. But it is not necessary to particularize ad- 

 vantages already generally known and highly ap- 

 preciated. 



The close of a volume forms a sort of an epoch 

 in the financial concerns of our ofiice, and pay- 

 ments now made of sums due for our paper, would 

 not only comport with our convenience but minis- 

 ter to our necessities, and serve, as it were, for an- 

 ti-friction rollers to the wheels of our establish- 

 ment. We hope that this intimation will be suf- 

 ficient, and supersede the necessity of that impor- 

 tunity, which is as disagreeable to us as it would 

 be to those to whom such solicitations, in cases of 

 continued delinquency, must be directed. 



hasten their dissolution, and cover the whole with 

 earth to receive the products of the decomposi- 

 tion, and thus the whole mass would make good 

 manure. 



The following has been often published, but 

 may be new to some, who might derive advantage 

 from 



.4 method to preserve Cheese from Mites. — Take 

 a pod of red pepper and put it into a piece of fine 

 linen ; moisten it wiib a litilo Ijuttor, and rub j'oiir 

 nhoese irequeiuly. It not only gives a fine color 

 to cheese, but is so pungent that no fly will come 

 near it. 



Green Vegetables for Manure. — No good farmer 

 or gardener will permit, when he can well avoid 

 it, weeds, nor indeed any other vegetable or ani- 

 mal matter to dry or rot above ground. In hoe- 

 ing corn, it is better to bury the weeds as you pro- 

 ceed than leave them on the top of the ground. — 

 III gardening, when you have collected a mass of 

 weeds, throw over them a suflicient quantity of 

 soil to keep them from the air, and absorb the 

 products of their decomposition. Make small 

 heaps of weeds in balks or alleys, and cover them 

 with earth, and in a short time they will give you 

 beds of compost manure. Green fern [brakes] is 

 recommended by Mr Knight as very useful for 

 this purpose, as they contain more fertilizing mat- 

 ter, or food for plants, than most vegetables. Mr 

 Knight says, " any given quantity of vegetable 

 matter can, generally, be employed in its recent 

 and organized state with much more advantage 

 than when it has been decompo.sed, and no incon- 

 siderable part of its component parts has been dis- 

 sipated and lost during the jirogress of the putre- 

 factive fermentation." If this fermentation pro- 

 ceeds when the vegetables are covered with earth, 

 or some substance, which will receive and retain 

 its gaseous matter, and this substance is after- 

 wards applied to the soil which it is wished to 

 manure there is little if any waste. Perhaps it 

 would be well to place green weeds in small 

 licups, throw a little quick lime over them to 



Horticultural At the last meeting ofthe.Veu' 



York Horticultural Society, the visitors were gratifi- 

 ed by the most splendid exhibition of flowers ever 

 witnessed in New York. Of the magnificent car- 

 nation, which sports in such innumerable varie- 

 ties, upwards of 100 distinct sorts were brought 

 forward, mostly from the Linntean Garden of Wm 

 Prixce, of Flushing, to whose skill and enterprise 

 the catalogue of our garden products is indebted 

 for some of its most valuable specimens. The 

 gooseberries exhibited were very sujierior, twelve 

 of which weighed five ounces — several splendid 

 plants from Mr Wilson's garden — ripe Apricots 

 measuring six inches in circumference — also^ fine 

 specimens of Antwerp, and Brentford Ras|4<eiTies 

 — Knivet's New Pine Strawberry — the Sciipper- 

 nong, Texas, and Long's Arkansas Grapes — Sal- 

 safy — and between one and two hundred diflferent 

 sorts of flowers, native, and exotic, from Wm 

 Prince's Garden, among which was the Yucca 

 Jilaiitcntosa, a North American plant, with a spike 

 of flowers seven feet four inches in length. 



Mr Samuel Pond, of Cambridge, exhibited at 

 the Hall of the Massachusetts Horticultural Societyy 

 on Saturilay, the llth inst, some of the largest 

 and finest Early Potatoes that have been seen in 

 our market this season. They were raised from 

 the ball four years since, by Mr Solomon Per- 

 kins, of Bridgewater. This kind will prove a val- 

 uable sort for our market gardeners, from its earli- 

 ncss and productive quality — sixteen hills yielding 

 five pecks, at this early part of the season. Some 

 very fine specimens of Siberian Spirea, and seed- 

 ling Carnations, &c., were exhibited by the Messrs 

 WiNSHirs, of Brighton — Mr Downer brought 

 forward a specimen of Scupperiiong wine, from 

 North Carolina, with fine .specimens of Jlexican 

 Dahlias, late Roses, and his late Mazard Cherry. 



Seeds. — In the proceedings of the Horticultural 

 Society of London, there is an account of two air 

 tight hogsheads of bright looking seeds, whose 

 vegetating princij>le had been destroyed by the 



heat of the stagnant air in the hole of a vessel. 



Seeds from the same Seedsman, kejit in the 

 trunks of passengers in the same vessel, vegetat- 

 ed remarkably well. 



for 



[From " Seventy-Five Receipis," a valuable little work 

 sale at this office.] ' 



RED CURRANT JELLV. 



Wash your currants, drain them, and jiickthem 

 from the stalks. Mash them with the hack of a 

 spoon. Put them in a jelly-bag, and squeeze it till 

 all thejuice is pressed out. 



To every pint of juice, allow a pound of the 

 best loaf sugar. Put thejuice and the sugar into 

 your kettle, and boil it fifteen minutes, skimming 

 it all the while. Pour it warm into your glasses, 

 set it for several hours in the sun, and when cold 

 tie it lip with brandy jiaper. Jellies should never 

 he allowed to get cold in the kettle. If boiled too 

 long, they will lose their flavor, and become of a 

 dark color. 



Strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, and grape 

 jelly may be made in the same manner, and with 

 the same proportion of loaf sugar. 



Red currant jelly may also be made in a very 



