NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



IV. U \l\, M IX1l-rl.A4 IVI 11 I I\ XI. XVX J_« J.V « MAY 1^ I *1. 



354 



-C;;;;^;^.W...-Ia.^in,ui.d of in|T.e winnow.^ 



regard to the Chevolier barley, purchased of you I must at hst be left to the (Wnminating reader, _ .S _ . . , , 



last year I do i>ot judae my soU suited to any of ; who, .f a liberal one, w.ll be ready to make all a 

 IS JmaU grains, but found the yeld and kernel of;lowance .f the chaff he not out of nil proportion to 



this variety much gronler and fuller than from 

 common barley on richer ground. 

 Yours, with respect, 



tht 



POTATOES FROM THE SEED, 



A Mr Merriam, of Chelmsford, recently called 

 upon us and related an account of a wonderful 

 growth of potatoes from the seed. He states that 

 his account wilL seem incredible, and yet that it 

 can be proved by competent witnes.sos. His state- 

 ments are, that olants, apparently weeds when quite 

 small, came up in his onion |)atch, A few ot these 

 escaped destruction at the tirst weeding and soon 

 put on the appearance of potato vines. The land 

 has been sowed with onions four or five years in 

 succession. He can in no way account for the 

 presence of the seed. Late in autumn these vines 

 were of immense size i one of thorn measured 8 J -2 

 feet in length. From this one he obtained !■') ".5-4 

 pounds of good sized and handsome potatoes. The 

 others yielded most abundantly : some of them 

 furnishing fair potatoes, and others yielding those 

 of irregufar shape. Three roots furnished some- 

 thing resembling the old Spanish potato. From 

 one root he obtained a very white potato— from 

 another, the kidney— from a third, a round red. If 

 we understood him correctly, the vines yielded 

 from 97 to 127 potatoes each. Here was certainly 

 an e.\traordinary produce. Unfortunately, the 

 greater part of his crop has been frozen during the 

 past winter. 



The gentleman seemed to he at a loss to ac- 

 count for the appearance of these plants in that 

 land, and also for the varieties of potato, all of 

 which were different from any that he had ever 

 cultivated. We can suppose that potato vines, 

 with seed balls upon them, were worked into his 

 manure and in that carried on to the field ; and it 

 is not uncommon for the seeds from potatoes of 

 any one variety to yield fruit of various forms, col- 

 ors and properties. There seems to us no myste- 

 ry, unless it be in the great productiveness; and 

 in relation to this it must be remembered that the 

 land was in good tilth, and that the onion tops, be- 

 in" comparatively small, would offer but little ob- 

 struccion to the freest and fullest growth of the po- 

 tato.— Ed. N. E. F. 



the wlieat. 



Salt, says our author, has been employed by the 

 gardener for many purposes ; most commonly on 

 Ittwns, at the rate of ten bushels per acre, to pre- 

 vent worm casts ; and on gravel walks in a larger 

 proportion, to kill weeds ; it may be employed, 

 however, as a fertilizer in gardens with decided 

 advantage. I have witnessed the results of the 

 following experiments made by my brother, George 

 Johnson, at Great Totham, and I the more readily 

 give them a place here, from knowing with what 

 care they were made : 



The soil was composed of stones and gravel 27 

 parts out of 100— vegetable fibre J.5— soluble mat- 

 ter 3— carbonate of lime and magnesia 18— oxide 

 of iron 4 — animal and vegetable matter 1 — alumi- 

 na 4.5— silica 40— loss 1. Cultivated in Windsor 

 beans. The soil treated with twenty bushels of 

 salt per acre produced 217 bushels— the simple 

 soil without salt, produced 135 1-2 bushels. 



Onions, 



* Tons. cwt. qrs. lbs. 

 Salt 20 bushels — manure 20 tons 



per acre — produce. 

 Manure, 20 tons per acre, 



Carro ts. 



1. Soil without manure, 



2. ' with 20 tons of manure, 



3. ' ' 20 bushels of salt, 



4. ' ' 20 ' salt and 

 20 tons of manure, 23 6 1 18 



Parsnips. 



1. Soil with 20 tons manure and 

 20 bushels salt, C 



2. Soil with 20 tons manure, 6 



Early Potatoes. 



1. Soil simple, 308 bushels. 



2. Soil with 20 bu. salt, 581 bushels. 

 Beets. 



1. Soil simple, 4 



2. Soil with 20 bushels of salt, 4 



3. Soil with 20 bu. salt and 20 tons 

 of manure, 7 



4. Soil with 20 tons manure, Ci 



In preventing clubbing in the roots of some of 

 the brassica (cabbage) tribe, my brother found salt 

 hin-hly uselul : he states in some observations on 

 this diseise, read to the Horticultural Society of 

 London, October 16, 1821, that "some cauliflow- 

 ers wore planted upon a light silicious soil, which 

 had previously been manured with well putrified 

 stable manure, and over one third of the allotted 

 space was sown with salt at the rate of 20 bushels 

 per acre, immediately before planting in July, 1821. 

 The previous crop had been brocoli. Fiftyfour 

 plants were set on the two thirds unsaltcd, and 

 iwentysix on the one third salted : the result has 



at Titcham, planted in March, 1829, two hundred 

 Brighton coss lettuces, and sprinkled between the , 

 rows, quick lime. Two hundred more were plant- 

 ed out, and salt sprinkled between the rows. Those '• 

 limed (the season proving dry,) ran to seed, and ' 

 were of little value ; but those on the salted ground 

 cabbaged well, and were as productive as if the 

 season had been wet. 



The author proceeds to recommend the use of 

 salt to florists by many examples of its effects. Dr. 

 Priestley, by various experiments, found that the 

 use of salt materially protracted the life of plants ; 

 and so well is this fact established, that it is a com- 

 mon custom with the importers of exotic plants to 

 dip cuttings into salt water. " Before the adop- 

 tion of this plan they almost invariably perished on 

 [he passage." Another writer of much observa- 

 tion, speaking of the use of salt in the culture of 

 hvacinths in Holland, says — "This root, though 

 not indigenous to the country, may be said to be 

 completely naturalized in the neighborhood oi 

 Haerlem, where it grows luxuriantly in a deep, 

 sandy, alluvial soil ; yet one great cause of its fret 

 growth, I considered was owing to the saline at- 

 mosphere : this induced me to mix salt in compost 

 and I am satisfied that no hyacinths will grow wel 

 at a distance from the sea without it." 



We have said enough lo set our fair readers whi 

 are fond of flowers, (the best sign of a good heart, 

 to thinking — and we all know how it is with then- 

 when they take a thing in their head. — Amci: FcH 



15 

 11 



COMMON SALT— ITS USES IN HORTICUL- 

 TURE. 

 From Johnson's work on Fertilizers, we trans- 

 cribe the chapter whereof the contents are indica- 

 ted by the heading of this. When used by the 

 trardener or florist, the quantity of salt needed is 

 so small as to constitute no serious objection, and 

 the scope of experiments necessary to ascertain its 

 effects is so limited, as to admit of their being made 

 with ease and exactness: and here let us say, that 



if young agricullurists were mure given to such i«ciiijriM« «.. w,.>, v,,.^, . — 



experiments, and to noting their results, they migiit; been, that of the fiftyfour unsalted, fifteen have 

 fill up many an hour usefully thai is now passed in i been diseased and unproductive, but of the twenty- 

 listless ennui, or, to escape from that, in ruinous ' six salted, only two." 



dissipation. | A writer in the Farmer's Journal, October 23, 



In transferring matter from foreign works to 1820, says— I have employed salt with success, 

 American periodicals, the most rigid and judicious more especially to onions, and the whole of the 

 excision of that which is inajiplicable, will not al- cabbage tribe. Before the application of salt, 

 ways exclude some things which in our country they were generally clubbed at the roots and worm 

 will appear irrelevant, or prove to be impracticable, eaten ; but since its application they have been 



SILK CULTURE— IMPORTANT DISCOVE 

 RY— THE MUSCARDING IN AMERICA. 

 Probably the most important information it ha 

 ever fallen to the lot of the writer of this to con 

 municate to the public, on the subject of silk cu 

 ture in this country, will be found in the presei 

 article. It has long been known to every one vr\ 

 has read much on the subject of the silk cultur 

 that, by the ravages of a disease called Muscari 

 ing, in Europe, the average loss of worms, takir 

 one year with another, amounted to from fortyfi' 

 to fifty per cent, of all the worms hatched ; an 

 what was still worse, the disease generally mai 

 its appearance after the greater portion of the e 

 pense of the rearing had been incurred. Tl 

 evil has continued, from time beyond the reach 

 history, to within a year or two past. In the Ur 

 ted Slates, all of us have heretofore considered o- 

 worms exempt from this fatal disease, it havh 

 generally been supposed not to exist here at a 

 This was a fatal delusion. I have just receivi 

 from France a copy of the " Annales de la Socie 

 Scricicole, fondee en 1837, pour la propagation 

 I'amelioration de I'industrie de la soie en France 

 for 1837, 1638, and 1839, in one of the volumes 

 which I find a plate representing silkworms in t 

 various stages of the muscarding ; the first glan 

 at which showed me that it was the identical d 

 ease of which a great portion of the silkworms 

 this country have perished. All who saw the d 

 ease last summer and have seen this plate, iden 

 fied it instantly. I shall endeavor to have trans 

 tions made for the next number of the Silk Joi 

 nal, and if possible, shall accompany them will 

 copy of the plate, that all may read, see and jud 

 for themselves. In the meantime, I have thouf 

 it advisable to take this hasty notice of the fa 

 that all silk growers may be enabled to apply I 

 preventive and remedy. Happily, tiie remedy v 



