90 



N E Vv' ENGLAND FAR M E R 



SEPT. 83 1 4 



1 



les, but those used must not be allowed to grow 

 hard or lough before gathering. 



JVaslurliums. — Gather them when snuill and 

 green; put them in salt and natei, and rhango 

 them once in three days. When the gathering is 

 done, turn off the brine, and pour on scalding Mot 

 vim-gar. Season at pleasure, though generally 

 used without. 



Miitigoes. — These are made of green muskmel- 

 ons, as late in the season as possible. The com- 

 mon muskmelons make the best mangoes. A 

 small piece is cut from the side, and the seeds care- 

 fully scraped out; it is then soaked in salt and wa- 

 ter three or four days ; when taken out, it is sprin- 

 kled on the inside with powdered cloves, pepper, 

 nutmeg, and filled with strips of horse radish, cin- 

 namon, small string beans, small pieces of Hag root, 

 nasturtium, small onions, radish tops, &c. The 

 crevices are tilled with whole mustard seed. The 

 piece of melon is then put back and a piece of 

 white cotton clotli sowed around it. The melon is 

 then placed in a jar, and vinegar prepared with 

 alum, salt and pepper corns, as for cucumbers, made 

 boiling hot, is poured over i'. 



Cabbages. — Quarter the firm head of tlie cab- 

 bage ; put the parts in a keg, sprinkle on them a 

 good quantity of salt, and let them remain five or 

 si.\ days To a gallon of vinegar put an ounce of 

 mace, and one of p"pper corns and cinnamon. 

 Cloves and allspice may be added, but they darken 

 the color of the cabbage. Heat the vinegar scald- 

 ing hot, add a little alum, and turn it while hot on 

 the cabbage, the salt remaining. It is necessary 

 to turn the vinegar from the cabbage several times, 

 return it again while hot. This makes them ten- 

 der. Purple cabbages, the heads not large, but 

 fine and firm, are best for pickling. 



Piikling Oyslcrs. — lioil and strain the liquor, 

 first taking the oysters from it. Rinse the oysters 

 and see they are free from pieces of shells. Put 

 them in the liquor while boiling; boil them one 

 minute, then take them out of it, and to the liqircr 

 put a few pepper corns, "cloves and a blade or two 

 of mace ; add a little salt, and the same quantity 

 of vinegar as oyster juice. Let the whole boil fif- 

 teen minutes and then turn it onto the oysters. If 

 the oysters are to be kept any time, they must be 

 buttled and corked as soon, as cold. — Jtlbany Cull. 



From ihe Albany Cultivator. 



MILKING. 



" Is there any remedy to keep a cow from hold- 

 ing up her milk ? or in other words, to make them 

 give it down when weaning the calf? I have two 

 cows that hold up their mdk at such times, so that 

 they would dry themselves up in a short time: one 

 of them T have milked for two hours at a time, and 

 cnuld get but very little milk, and then let in the 

 calf and she would give it down in a moment. I 

 have been compelled to let my calf suck through 

 the suminer and fall to get any milk. Any infor- 

 mation on the subject will be gladly received. 



Middlebiiry, la., July, 1840. A. Freeman. 



Gentle treatment at all times: accustoming the 

 heifer to having her udder handled before calving ; 

 and milking her al first while the calf is about her, 

 if she shows any disposition to retain her milk, will 



Herbs. — There are many herbs used for culina- 

 ry purposes, such as sage, suumier savory, parsley, 

 &c., and for medicinal purposes, such as tansy, 

 wormwood, arsmart, penny royal, &c. v hich should 

 be saved as they arrive at the proper state. They 

 are generally in their greatest perfection, when tlie 

 foliage is fully expanded, and they begin to flower. 

 At this time in a dry day, they should be i-ollected 

 and dried in the shade. When the moisture is en- 

 tirely exhausted, they must be pressed into nia.sses 

 of four or five inches square, papere<l and labelled. 

 Put into a dry box and in u dry place, they may 

 be kept almost any length of time. The farmer 

 during the winter finds occasional use for herbs in 

 treating diseased animals, and the want of them or 

 the trouble of ))rocuring them, in luuning over the 

 neighborhood to beg them, is far greater than that 

 of saving them. — Ibid. ' 



ty of the most scientific agriculturist has not been 

 able to protect it. In other parts of this country 

 this valuable tree is not subject to the attacks of 

 this destructive worm. Now may it not bo a rea- 

 sonable supposition, that the species of birds v.'hich 

 nature has provided for feeding upon these locust 

 worms, are wanting in this part of the country, and 

 as a necessary consequence, this species of worms 

 become exceedingly numerous and destructive? 

 Agricultural societies have formerly offered prizes 

 for the best means of destroying the locust worms. 

 Might it not be a successful means of destroying 

 them, to ascertain the kind of birds that feed upon 

 them, and to encourage the propagation of them in 

 this part of the country ? It has been pretty well 

 ascertained by naturalists that even those birds 

 that are usually considered mischievous, perform 

 services to the farmer which greatly overbalance 

 all the mischief they do. Probably there is not a 

 mischievous caterpillar in our orchards which is 



usually prevent a cow from holding up her milk, j pot the favorite food of some kind of bird; and 



We have never had a cow addicted to this prac- 

 tice, and we know of no remedy for the habit, disa- 

 greeable as it is, when once contracted. A writer 

 in a former volume of the New Ent'land Farmer 

 asserts that placing a rope around the horns of a 

 cow when in the stanchels and drawing her head 

 high while being milked, will not only prevent her 

 kicking, but is a remedy for her liolding up hen 

 milk. This may be reasonable, as elevating the 

 head must prevent that contraction of the muscles 

 and curvature of the back, always observable when 

 a cow holds up her milk or kicks. If any of our 

 correspondents know a remedy, and will communi- 

 cate it, it shall have a place with jdeasure. 



could this bird only be known and its number in- 

 creased, we might save the farmer from many a ru- 

 ined harvest. 



A Cincinnati paper says that 400 miles of hogs 

 were killed in that city the last year. That seems 

 to be a new way of counting swine. 



DESTRUCTION OF BIRDS. 



By far the greater number of small birds are sup- 

 ported by feeding upon insects and grubs. Each 

 particular species of bird are fond of a particular 

 species of insects or worms, as their favorite food ; 

 seldom can two birds of different species be found 

 that are chieflv fed with the same kind of insects. 

 Hence it follows, that by destroying birds we en- 

 courage the increase of the insect tribes ajid by 

 destroying a particular species of birds, we encour- 

 age the increase of that particular tribe of insects 

 they are most fond of as articles of diet. It hap- 

 pens very fortunately that the birds which are most 

 useful to man, as devourers of insects, are too small 

 to be of much value to the sportsman. The spar- 

 row tribe, on this account, are .'•uffered to live, and 

 a vast deal of service do they perform to the agri- 

 culturists, by picking up the worms and inserts 

 which infest his orchards, and the little grubs which 

 r:re destined to become the enemies to vegetation 

 after they have arrived at maturity. 'I lie wood- 

 peckers, likewise, are suffered to escape on ac- 

 count of (heir unprofitableness ill the market. These 

 little birds are undoubtedly the n>eans of saving 

 whole forests from destruction by the ravages of 

 insects ; and were any particular species of wood- 

 peckers to be suddenly annihilated, we should pro- 

 bably soon discover the office which they perform- 

 ed in the economy of nature, by seeing a certain 

 kind of timber in our fnrests destroyed by that kind 

 of insects which were formerly devoured by this 

 species of bird 



It is well known that the locust tree, which af- 

 fords some of the most valuable timber for posts in 

 the country, on account of its hardness and dura- 

 bility, is very uuilerially injured by a peculiar spe- 

 cies of worm, from wliich all the care and ingenui- 



LUCERNE. 



This grass delights in a deep sandy 1 jam. The 

 land should be thoroughly cleaned of all weeds, or 

 Ihe seed should be sown in drills, so that the plants 

 may be hoed until the weeds are subdued, ftlr S. 

 Howard states in the ZanesviUe (Ohio) Gazette, 

 that he sowed a small quantity of seed in drills, 

 the last week in May, on the '• river bottom." The 

 last of July it had reached eighteen inches in 

 height, when it was cut and fed green to liogs and 

 milch cows, who both ate it voraciously. In four 

 weeks it had again grown to the same height, 

 when it was cut the second time : on the first of 

 November it was again cut, the crop being heavier 

 than either of the preceding. A piece of very 

 flourishing red clover adjoining, on precisely simi- 

 lar soil, did not yield near half as much as the lu- 

 cerne. Mr H. has no doubt but it may be cut, af- 

 ter the first year, five times in a season, and that it 

 will yield a ton and a half per acre of hay at each 

 cutting. The culture of lucerne has formed a dis- 

 tinguishing feature in the agriculture of France, 

 where it has been in use for more than 250 years. 

 The crop is there estimoted at from five to seven 

 tons to the English acre. — Albany Cult. 



We understand, says the Worcester yEgis, that 

 Daniel Webster and Isaac Hill have consented to 

 attend the approaching Cattle Show in this town, 

 and to deliver addresses on tlie occasion. Ad- 

 dresses will [irobably be given by other distinguish- 

 ed farmers, who are expected to be present on the 

 occasion. 



Compost Manure. — M. Quenard, an experienced 

 cultivator of France, recommends as perfect, a 

 compost prepared as follows : 1. A layer of green 

 stuff taken from a pond. 2. A layer of quick lime, 

 ashes and soot. 3. A layer of straw and gteen 

 grass. 4. The same as first. 'J'hese layers to be 

 repeated as often as need be. Holes are then 

 made through the several lay(^rs, and sufficient wa- 

 ter introduced to saturate the mass and cause a 

 thorough mixture of the vegetable and alkaline sub- 

 stances. 



