VOIi. XIK. NO. 6. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER, 



45 



HEADS GATHKREl) FOR SEED. 



Tlie good and careful fanner takes the pains to 

 select from his wheat and his corn the ears and 

 heads that are earliest ripe for seed. In this way 

 he may always keep these productions up to the 

 mark nay, if the selection be made with close at- 

 tention and per.severance from year to year, it can- 

 not be doubted that very great improvement would 

 result from it, and that all grains and plants thus 

 selected, would pass in a few years through a course 

 of melioration to the greatest attainable degree of 

 perfection — if indeed such a degree can be reached. 



The young farmer who would begin now to 

 manage on this principle, in regard to all his sta- 

 ple crops, as Mr Baden did many years since with 

 his Baden corn, and who, in the view of his neigh- 

 bors would persist in carrying out the system un- 

 der his direct personal supervision, and with the 

 utmost particularity, would not only render a great 

 service to his neighborhood, but might command 

 for his commodities an extra price, that would more 

 than compensate him for his trouble. 



Dr. Anderson, in his "Recreations," says: — 

 "Every attentive observer will remark among the 

 plants of almost every kind of crop, some individu- 

 al stalks which are distinguis'iable from the others 

 by a great degree of health or luxuriance, or profli- 

 gacy, or earliness, or some other peculiarity. A 

 friend of mine remarked some years ago, a particu- 

 lar stem of peas among his earliest crop, which came 

 into flower and ripened long before the others. He 

 marked this stem and saved the whole of its pro- 

 duce for seed. These came as nmch earlier as 

 they had originally done. This produce was also 

 saved for seed ; and thus he obtained a particular 

 kind of early pea, that came at least a week before 

 the best sort he could buy in the shops, if sown at 

 the same time with them." The Doctor relates 

 facts similar to this respecting wheat and beans. 

 The general idea he means to incultate is obvious, 

 and i.'xliemely wortliy attention. — American Far- 

 mer. 



[The experiment of Rev. Dr. Freeman, publish- 

 ed in this day's Farmer, clearly demonstrates that 

 great advantage is to be gained by selecting for 

 seed those heads which are earliest ripe.] 



sixteen or seventeen hundred years old. — Hartford 

 Conrant. 



Tlie springing up of plants in a soil on which ii 

 is known no plant of a similar kind has grown for 

 a century or ii'ore, is a fact of such comnum occur- 

 rence in New England, that it hardly attracts no- 

 tice. Large tracts of land among the (ireen Moun- 

 tains, on being cleared and burned over, produce 

 the ' high blackberry" in most luxuriant abun- 

 dance. So, too, in many places what are called 

 " pine barrens," being burned over, are soon cov- 

 ered with shrub oaks. Ii is a well known fact, 

 that some years ago, when the hills at the wester- 

 ly part of this city were dug down twenty or thirty 

 feet, and an immense body of earth removed, the 

 new surface was almost immediately thickly sprink- 

 led with the thorn apple (stramonium) growing to 

 an uncommon rankness. Where did the seed of 

 this plant come from ? or was it the spontaneous 

 effect of the "primal curse" — "thorns also and 

 thistles shall it bring forth " ? 



A singular instance illustrating the vitality of 

 seed remaining in the earth, is within our own ex- 

 perience. Seven years ago we threw in our gar- 

 den at Cambridge, a small quantity of the seeds of 

 the common tobacco — intending to use the leaves 

 ofthe plant in experiments for destroying bugs, 

 worms, &c. No plant produced from this seed 

 has ever been permitted to ripen on the premises, 

 and but one was permitted to flower : yet, there 

 has been no year of the seven, in which new plants 

 have not come up, and it is not a week since we 

 destroyed several of them. Some ofthe seed must 

 have lived seven years in the earth before it vege- 

 tated. — Boston Courier. 



PROTRACTED VITALITY OF SEEDS. 



Without admitting such doubtful cases as those 

 of seeds preserved in mummies having germinated, 

 there are many instances of seminal longevity about 

 which there can be no doubt. Books contain an 

 abundance of iiwtances of plants having suddenly 

 sprung lip from the soil obtained from deep exca- 

 vations, where the seeds must be supposed to have 

 been buried for ages. Professor Henslow says 

 that in the fens of Cambridgeshire, after the surface 

 has been drained and the soil ploughed, large crops 

 of black and white mustard invariably appear. — 

 Miller mentions a case of Plantago Psyllium hav- 

 ing sprung from the soil of an ancient ditch which 

 was emptied at Chelsea, although the plant had 

 never b(!en seen in the memory of man. De Can- 

 dolle says that M. Gerardia succeeded in raising 

 kidney beans from seeds at least a hundred years 

 old, taken out of tlie Serbarium of Tournefort ; and 

 I have myself raised raspberry plants from seeds 

 found in an ancient coffin, in a barrow in Dorset- 

 shire, which seeds, from the coins and other relics 

 met with near them, may be estimated to have been 



PROFIT OF BEE-KEEPING. 

 Col. II. K. Oliver, of this city, has for several 

 years paid great attention to the management of 

 bees ; and after a scries of experimenis and unwea- 

 ried dilioence, he has now reached a wcmderful de- 

 gree of perfection. His apiaries, we may safely 

 say, are the finest in the State. Col. O. uses the 

 non-swarming collateral hive, which he thinks bet- 

 ter adapted to cities nnd populous places than any 

 other. We had the pleasure of witnessing the la- 

 bors of his busy operatives last week, and can as- 

 sure our readers that it ia a sight well worth see- 

 ing. The hivps are so constructed that one can 

 observe without danger all the operations of these 

 indefitigablo laborers, and draw therefrom many a 

 useful lesson. 



Col. Oliver has two apiaries, one containing 

 eight, and the other (partly stocked) to contain sev- 

 en hives. The hives consist of one central and 

 two collateral boxes — the honey being drawn only 

 from the collaterals, leaving that in tlie central box 

 where the bees are preserved during the cold weath- 

 er, as stock for their winter supply. Some of them 

 have, in addition to the two collaterals, a top box 

 t(p contain glasses to be filled by the bees. Dur- 

 ing the present year ten hives have yielded an 

 average of 50 pounds each, making 500 lbs. of hon- 

 ey, which sells readily here at 25 cents per lb. 

 Some ofthe hives yield as high as 80 pounds each. 

 The honey is the whitest, clearest, purest we have 

 ever seen, and, fresh from the comb, is truly deli- 

 cious. 



As to the profit of keeping bees, there cannot be 

 a question, the Col. thinks, if they are rightly man- 

 aged. But like all othct^ stock, they need care and 

 attention, and must not, to be made profitable, be 

 kept in the usual rough boxes of the farmers, nor 

 left to the tender meffcies of the moth. By the 

 common method, in order to get the honey, the 

 bees are all killed ; but b-y the improved method, 

 they are all saved alive, and are deprived of only 

 the excess of honey over what, is necessary for the 

 winter's consumption. Our townsmen, Messrs Hol- 

 man and Phippen, havfl apiaries also, constructed 

 on the same bee-preserving principle, and equally 

 profit.ible. — Salem Register. 



The American (Baltimore) Farmer says the crops 

 ofthe Middle States promise an abundance greater 

 than common, in spite ofthe reports to the contra- 

 ry circulated by speculators in bread stuffs. 



Mites in Cheese. — We copy the following from 

 the Zanesville Gazette, and shall publish it for the 

 special benefit of cheesemakers and cheesemongers, 

 not doubting that it will materially increase the 

 consumption of the article. Were it as fashionable 

 to drink spirits of turpentine as spirits of wine or 

 brandy, the first might be substituted for the last 

 in its application to cheese, and quite as effe<tual- 

 ly. As it is, we go for the brandy di'cidedly, and 

 recommend its use to the possessors of all coloniz- 

 ed cheeses. — Alb. Cull. 



"All who deal in cheese, whether housekeepers 

 or merchants, know their liability to bo attacked by 

 skippers, and the better the cheese the more liable 

 they are to such attacks. To drive them out, the 

 following mode will be found eflfectual, while the 

 flavor of the cheese will be greatly improved. Cut 

 out a large plug in the upjier side of the cheese, 

 and fill up the cavity with the best French brandy, 

 and repeating the operation two or three tin<es, 

 when the plug may be restored and pasted over, 

 for the skippers will be found to have left the 

 cheese, making their way outside." 



[We trust the above suggestion will not have a 

 tendency to increase the number of cheese-caters 

 for the sake ofthe ardent.] 



