AND HORTICULTUItAL REGISTER. 



PUBLISHED BV JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKFT STRPPt ^a^„,„„ , «7 » . , ■ ^,.7 ~" 

 ' iiuii.in iYiAK,».iii aiKh,!!,!, (Agricultuhal Warehouse.)— ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



vol.. XIX,] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 21, 1841. 



[NO. 43. 



N. E. FARMER 



For the N. E. Farmer. 



OPINIONS OF A CORRESPONDENT. 

 Mr Editor— There are a few thoughts floating 

 in my mind, which I feel disposed to divulge fo"!- 

 your con.siileration (not editicatioij.) If tliey coin- 

 cide with your views, I shall consider them .sound ; 

 if otherwise, I shall regret, perhaps, having com- 

 mitted them to paper. They are submitted in the 

 following queries : 



Would it not tend more certainly to promote the 

 prosperity of the great mass of our farmers, if the 

 intelligent gentlemen who control the agricultural 

 press, instead of recommending to their favor costly 

 foreign minerals as fertilizers of the soil, would 

 devote their entire abilities to teaching lliem the 

 means they have in abundance at home^of enricli- 

 ing their land, and the n:ethod by which they can 

 derive the most benefit from those means ? 



Will not the recommendation or favorable notice 

 by editors, of nitrate of soda, saltpetre, &c., as ma- 

 nures, have the effect; in some cases, to divert the 



farmer's attention from his peat beds and bogs 



those prolific mines of wealth—the true value of 

 which is but just beginning to be generally appre- 

 ciated .' 



Will not the New England cultivator, of mode- 

 rate means, best promote his true interest by seek- 

 ing the means of enriching his land in the substan- 

 ces which abound on his own premises, or which, 

 as lime, can be had in most cases easily and in 

 abundance ? 



Had not the great mass of our New England ag. 

 riculturists — iho common farmers — much rather be 

 instructed in regard to the means they have within 

 their reach of improving their land, than bored with 

 long, dry essays and statements respecting the 

 scarce and costly substances e.xperimented with by 

 the wealthy nobility and gentry across the water, 

 and which, for the best of reasons, it is plainly evi- 

 dent can never be introduced among us, except, 

 perhaps, by a few "fancy farmers," whose opulence 

 enables them to amuse themselves with any toy 

 they please ? 



I trust, sir, you will not regard the above sug- 

 gestions as the dictates of a captious disposition : 

 they are submitted merely as the views of one who 

 l^iys no claim to more than common sagacity, and 

 or the purpose, mainly, of learning whether in your 

 luperior judgment they are well founded. As they 

 ire propositions in demonstration of which I offer 

 Jnly a simple 1 think so, they are not entitled to 

 iny great consideration. 



In my humble opinion,' Mr Editor, (and I say it 

 ^'ith all becoming deference to the opinions ofoth- 

 irs,) the class of farmers which it should be the 

 )rinie object of the agricultural press to benefit, 

 ire those who compose a vast majority of our cul- 

 ivators,— the men who of necessity till the soil with 

 ,heir own hands, to earn their subsistence and pro- 

 'ide for tlieir offsjjring. These, are the real far- 



mers — the hard-handed, honest- hearted yeomanry 

 of our land — the conservators of the public morals | 

 and the public liberty — and these are they whom I 

 conceive it should be the chief aim of the gentle- 

 men of your high profession to aid, — not by bring- 

 ing to their attention or urging for their adoption 

 every new-fangled project which may be originated 

 abroad, and which neither their means nor their in- 

 clinations encourage ai'y probability of their adopt- 

 ing — but by instructing them how to make the 

 most of the ample resources of thrift they have a< 

 home — and teaching them how they may over- 

 come by art the obstructions ot nature. 



You will not, sir, infer from what I have said, 

 that I would withhold from our farrners the account 

 of any va/iint/c discovery pertaining to their art, 

 which may be made abroad ; — by no means : but I 

 do think I speak the feelings of two thirds the read- 

 ers of your exceedingly useful journal when I say, 

 they had rather have such discoveries only brought 

 to their attention through your pages, as are not of 

 doubtful utility, and which, unlike the nitrate of 

 soda, do not "cost considerable'' and "sometimes 

 fail altogether" of good effect. 



All which is respectfully submitted — by 

 Yours to serve, 



JONATHA.N iloMESPL'N. 



Somewhere, Mass., 1841. 



same time will exercise a sound discretion in ap- 

 plying the lessons which may be learned, they will 

 find that theso experimenters are their benefactors. 

 For these inquirers— these experimenters- we 

 must occasionally write and select. We did so in 

 our last: we shall do so occasionally in future. 

 And yet, in the main, we hope to direct attention 

 to the abundant and the cneap, rather than thc« 

 "scarce an. I costly," and thus gratify friend Home- 

 spun and his kindred spirits, for whom we have a 

 high respect and whose sug-gestions we hio-hlv val- 

 ue — Ed. N. E. Far. ° 



For the N. E. Farmer. 



Farmer Homespun's floating thoughts bear the 

 appearance of having come up from the clear and 

 cool springs of reflection. They gently hint, that 

 our extended extracts, last week, relating to nitrate 

 of soda, might draw off his thoughts from the rich 

 and p\en.sant bog hole into which we led him the 

 week before. But we have no fears that his own 

 good sense will not prompt him to " hold fast that 

 which is good." If on his premises, peat, muck, 

 rich vegetable mould and the like abound, his re- 

 membrance that nitrate of soda " costs considera- 

 ble," will protect him from the attacks of any fatal 

 fever for experiments. We had no intention or 

 wish to lead the Jonathan Homespuns — the com- 

 mon, hard-handed farmers — into expensive outlays, 

 where the chances of profit are not decidedly fa- 

 vorable. But we thought that some of them might 

 wish for a little salt to season their fresh mud wfth, 

 and that we would show them the little that is 

 known of a kind of seasoning yet scarcely tried at 

 all in this vicinity, and then leave them unadvised 

 as to trying or rejecting it. But while we write 

 and select mainly for those who are earning a liv- 

 ing from the soil, wo yet have a very high regard 

 for those whose tastes lead, and whose fortunes 

 enable them, to try many experiments in husband- 

 ry, and whose course gives many valuable hints 

 and lessons to the less wealthy farmer. The ex- 

 porimentor's projects, whether resulting in success 

 or failure, are serviceable to the community. They 

 teach the prudent farmer what to adopt and what 

 to avoid. " Book farmers" though they be, they 

 are yet groat public benefactors. Andnf our com- 

 mon farmers will but become so far book farmers 

 as to learn what others have done and are doing in 

 the various departments of agriculture, and at the 



THi: POTATO. 

 "Is the potato a root .»" is a quere put in the N. 

 E. Farmer of the 3d of .March. If it be intended 

 to ask if the part which we eat, the tuber as it is 

 called, be a root, the answer must be no. " Verb. 

 Sat." is correct in supposing it not to be. 



The living covering- of almost all parts of plants, 

 except the roots, parts under water, and some 

 fruits, is pierced with small holes called Stomata, 

 or pores, which facilitate evaporation. When there 

 is an unusual degree of developement of cellular 

 substance, as in fruits, the part is said to be in a 

 state of anamorphosis. Fruits and stems in tRis 

 state have very few or no stomata or perspiring 

 pores. Many people have noticed on potato stems 

 a shining, dark purple tuber at the base or rather 

 in the axilla of each leaf. In some seasons, and 

 on some varieties of the potato, these tubers are 

 common, sometimes exceeding a filbert in size. 

 Now these tubers are situated in the very places 

 from which, by the laws of vegetation, branches 

 would be produced ; whence there can be no doubt, 

 but that they are the rudiments of branches, or 

 branches themselves in a state of anamorphosis. 

 They are destitute of exhaling pores, and the ma- 

 terials which would have possessed other proper- 

 ties, had these germs become branches, acquire a 

 character rendering them fit for food. The tuber 

 of a potato is a ste7n destitute of pores in the skin, 

 and appearing in a state of unnatural developement. 

 The mystery seems to consist in this— that the 

 great amount of starch it contains appears to have 

 been accumulated rather from the want of some of 

 the vessels proper to the plant, than by additional 

 organs by which it might have been elaborated and 

 secreted. 



Among dicotyledonous plants, a common, native 

 species of Loose-strife, (Lysimachia racemosa,) bears 

 bulbs at the axillie of the leaves ; and among the 

 monocotyledonous plants, we have familiar exam- 

 ples of similar character in the cloves of the garlic, 

 in the top or Canada onion, as well as in the dark 

 purple bulbs at the bases of the leaves of the Leop- 

 ard Lily, (Litium bulbiferum.) Such plants are 

 sometimes called viviparous. G. 



Fairport, Ohio. 



This world cannot explain its own difficulties 

 without the assistance of another. — Lacon. 



