1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



227 



tree. It will be an object of interest through life, 

 be often remembered, or spoken of or visited. — 

 Children will gather around it and relate old inci- 

 dents of the homestead, and not only will it become 

 the centre of clustering affections, but of gathering 

 hearts themselves. "My father planted this elm," 

 said a gentleman to a happy group, "when I held it 

 in place at the age of five years ; I remember it 

 well. See how its branches extend, and shield us 

 from the burning rays ; more than a dozen fami- 

 lies people its sheltering top, whose social and hap- 

 py lives are perpetual lessons of confidence and 

 love. My children ever read them with delight, 

 and daily bless the memory of their grand-parent, 

 who planted this tree. In imitation of his noble 

 example, they, too, have planted their trees, and 

 these groups about us, lifting their heads to the 

 skies, or reaching away into the air, are so many 

 good genii around our dwelling, protecting and 

 adorning and influencing all." 



Now, is the time to decide what and where to 

 plant. Shall it be one of the varieties of the elm, 

 prim, and all its length of a size, like a maiden's 

 dress in days gone by ? or the vase-form, or the 

 weei)ing elm ? Will you select the red or white ma- 

 ple, the stately ash, the rough, but noble oak, the 

 pendent willow, the wide-spreading beech, the horse 

 chestnut, black walnut or some evergreen ? 



Our New England Flora is unsurpassed ; the 

 nurseries, and the woods and pastures, abound with 

 beautiful specimens of most of our varieties. What 

 child in the country will feel that its whole duty is 

 iischarged, who has not planted a tree ! 



For the New England Fanner. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH POTATOES. 



Mr. Editor : — I wish to give you the results of 

 some ex])eriments that I have tried in jjlanting po- 

 tatoes. I planted five rows, eight hills in a row ; 

 one row was large potatoes cut, two halves in a hill, 

 yielding 44 lbs, 2 oz. ; one row large, two quarters 

 in a hill, 39 lbs. 2 oz. ; one row small, two halves 

 in a hill, 3 1 lbs. 2 oz. ; one row small, whole, two in 

 a hill, 30 lbs, 10 oz. ; one row large, whole, one in 

 a hill, 27 lbs. 2 oz. By this trial you will see that 

 the large whole potatoes, with one in a hill, gave 

 the lightest yield, and the two large halves in a hill, 

 the heaviest ; and that the two small halves gave a 

 little better yield than the two whole ones. I think, 

 as far as this experiment goes, it gives the prefer- 

 ence to cut potatoes for seed, 



I wish to say something more about potatoes, for 

 . the benefit of any one that raises them. The in- 

 formation that I wish to impart, I obtained in read- 

 ing a communication pubUshed in your paper some 

 time last spring, signed by an old English farmer. 

 I followed his advice by cutting my potatoes and 

 dipping them immediately in plaster, and planting 

 them with the plaster side uj), handling them light 

 ly, to keep from knocking ofi" the plaster. I plant- 

 ed a piece of land containing some four rods short 

 of a fourth of an acre ; the land was in a neighbor's 

 field, and he planted potatoes the same day, each 



side of mine, but his potatoes had no plaster on 

 them. The result was that the plastered potatoes 

 came up first, and continued to gain on the others 

 through the season, and when dug there was some 

 difference in the yield. My neighbor dug the same 

 number of rows of his, that I had in my piece, and 

 we measured them to ascertain the difi'erence ; he 

 had thirty-eight bushels, and I had seventy-two ! I 

 think the experiment needs no comment ; and I 

 think, likewise, as the old English farmer did, that 

 if you try it once, that you will never plant pota- 

 toes without the plaster, A Subscriber. 

 Shelburne, Vt. 



Fur the New England Farmer. 



CULTURE OF ROOTS. 



Mr, Brown : — Agreeably to my promise, I will 

 now endeavor to give a concise account of my meth- 

 od of raising root crops, and the uses to which I 

 have applied them. And jierhaps it may be as 

 well to give you my manner of sowing and culti- 

 vating the turnip crop, which I adopted the last 

 season, although I have for many years raised a 

 considerable amount of that crop, for a farmer with 

 a moderate quantity of arable land, which will be 

 the case, usually, in the hilly regions of New 

 Hampshire. In the spring of 1855, I manured 

 well one acre and five-eighths of ground, and plant- 

 ed the same with corn ; at my last hoeing, I sowed 

 my turnip seed broad-cast, after having plowed 

 lightly between my com rows. The time of sowing 

 was some time during the first week in July. In 

 the fall I harvested from that field one hundred 

 and nine bushels of the soundest corn which I have 

 seen for many years ; and quite late, just before 

 the ground froze, I gathered in my turnip crop from 

 the one and five-eighths acres, which measured, as I 

 stored them away in cellar, two hundred and twen- 

 ty-six bushels. I had also, two cartloads of extra 

 pumpkins on the same land, I had another small 

 spot of ground measuring seventy-one square rods, 

 which I sowed to wheat; that I harvested some 

 time in the fore part of August, which when thresh- 

 ed, measured ten bushels of good wheat. Imme- 

 diately after the wheat was cut I turned under the 

 stubble, and after smoothing the ground, I mixed 

 turnip seed with my grass seed, and sowed broad- 

 cast, I sowed this small field on the loth of Au- 

 gust, I gave this piece of land a sprinkling of ash- 

 es at the time of sowing my last seed, and harvest- 

 ed from it seventy-four bushels of turnips, of the 

 best quality that I ever saw, and they have been so 

 considered by others who have used them for table 

 use. My kind of turnip is the flat English, The 

 principal use which I have made of my turnip crop, 

 has been feed for my cattle ; I think much of the 

 crop for that purpose, I consider it a great saving 

 of fodder, and I have had some very fine stock which 

 I have exhibited in various fairs, and nearly all the 

 extra keeping of the same has been turnips, which 

 I cut mth a root cutter. The grass seed sown with 

 the turnips came up very even, and was, when small, 

 just shaded enough to preserve the roots in a vig- 

 orous state, and when I last saw the grass before 

 the snow fell, I thought it looked the best, and bid 

 the fairest for a good crop the next season, of any 

 which I ever have had, I think land seeded in 

 this way, far better than to stock down in the 

 spring with oats, which I find a very exhausting 

 crop. 



