;o 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



AUGUST ai, is.ir. 



grain — ride on our niil-roads — navifjate the ocean 

 — HTul sail in tlie air, tliroiif;li tlie agency of tlie 

 lightniniTs of Heaven. Still, all this is likely to 

 he acci)in|;lishe(l, even in our own day. Iflanie 

 be worth pursuing, iMr Davenport ni;iy yet enjoy 

 as ninch of it as man can reasonably desire. 



P^CTS AND OBSERVATIONS 



Respecting the Grain Jf'orm and the preparation of 

 Seed Wheat. 



Mr Holmf.s: — Every thing that I can connnn- 

 nicate on the subject of wheat, that yon may think 

 important, F will take the liberty to do through 

 the columns of your useful [)aper. J bail the day 

 when your paper w■.\s^ establLslied as one nil im- 

 portant to the agricidtin-e of Maine, and I atn in 

 hopes that the balance in rcgaril to bread-stufl's 

 here, will be on the other side of tfnJ ledger in a 

 few years. When 1 look npcui what the Sl.ati- 

 Legislature has done, I think I iiave reason to ex- 

 pect belter days, not only for bread, but for every 

 thing else. 



A writer in the Farmer thinks that lie has pre- 

 served his wheat from the ravages of the grain 

 worm, liy thoroughly cleansing the seed by means 

 of a sieve made for the purpose, and sifting about 

 a pint at a time. Another writer is of opinion 

 that fie saved his wheat liy pounding a bushel ui' 

 unslaked lime and sowing it on an acre. Another 

 writ(!r says that bis wheat was nnich eat'-n, and 

 he cut it and got it in green, and the beat of his 

 wheat hatched the !^y in tlie fall, and thousands 

 were to be seen in all direciionji, and on tlie roof 

 of bis barn ; and that he observed the same fly on 

 )iis ilurig heap in the Sjiring. 



I have silted my seed wheat for a number of 

 years, and washed it in a manner described by 

 you in one of your numbers ; limed it and let it 

 lay in lime a day and a night before sowing, jtud 

 I was not troubled with the gfaln worm during 

 the last, nor in any former years, whilst my 

 neighbors wheat was much injiiied. I raised 

 150 bushels of good, clean, sound wheat, frvp 

 from the grain worm. I sowed on it five or six 

 bushels to the acre, of leacbed ashes, after it was 

 np. 



I am told that Mr Philbr'ick, of this l<iwii, sow 

 ed two pieces last year, separated from each other 

 by a three rod road — one was eaten, and the oth- 

 er was not. I was told that the same took place 

 in Lewiston. I am told that James Curtis Esq. 

 of ibis town, purchased wheat to sow, of Mr Arm- 

 strong, which had been some eaten in 1835, and 

 sowed il, after thorough cleansing, and raised 

 wheat in 1836, free from the worm. 



Mr Editor: What are vye to |earn by the above 

 facts.' 1 learn, 



1st. That the grain vvornij or the fly that can- 

 Bes the grain worm, does noi iiyinble enough in 

 one year, to cross a three rod road, but is spread 

 or communicated by manure. 



2d. 'I'liat it has been a numlier of years in com. 

 ing from the South to this region. 



3d. Cleanse your wheat and manure entirely, 

 and you will have few or no grain worms. 



4th. That the remedy to be used as a preven- 

 tive, is just what we ought to i)se, if there was no 

 grain worm in the world. 



ELIJAH WOOD. 



Winthrop, 1837. 



Maine Farmer. 



Destruction of I^'SECTS How often does 



one enter a garden with the cabbages all dissected 

 to shreds, by caterpillars, and the owner inquiring 

 of every one for some recondite mode of killing 

 them ; when, if be would offer two or three lads 

 a penny a. quart for all they could pick off, bis 

 cabbages would be cleared of every assailant in a 

 few hours ; and in the same way he might have 

 the aphides rrusbed ofl'of any plant particulaily 

 valuable, and the caterpillars collecte<l from the 

 gooseberry bushes, by shaking them suddenly over 

 two or three newsjiapers laid round them. Even 

 on a large scale, it might be worth trying, if it 

 would not answer to employ boys to brush them 

 off, with some light kind of whisk, the aphides 

 from hops, when extensively attacked, on sheets 

 spread out behnv, when they eould be easily col- 

 lected and desiioyed : and if a few thousand 

 ducks can clear a district of turnips from the blacks, 

 there seems no reason (seeing that, however fast 

 the ducks gobble, I heir stomachs have no great 

 capacity, and must therefore soon be filled,) why 

 an array of boys, collected from the neighboring 

 villages, might not clear the land quite as efliec- 

 tiially, and with little greater cost, in the end. — 

 The mischief is, that in England, [and America 

 too, — Cojj'/.] we are prone to take it for granted 

 that cert; in evils are irremediable, without ever 

 fair'y trying to remove them. Thus, if our hed- 

 ges or trees are generally and extensively infested 

 with cater|pillars, we should laugh at the idea of 

 gelling rid of them by manual operations ; and 

 yet the French and Belgians, in similar cases, con- 

 stantly employ such means; and, in fact, the mu- 

 nicipal autlKiritics every year enjoin, by printed 

 notices and lines for non-compliance, on the [iro- 

 prietors of the land, echeniller to cut off [the points 

 of the shoots infesteil,] their trees. Even the 

 very Turks (in such mattters less fatalists than 

 ourselves) have the good sense to send out whole 

 armies to collect locusts, .ind to destroy them, 

 (as mentioned in the papers in a recent inslanee) 

 by thousands of bushels. — Extract of a letter from 

 .Mr Spence the Entomologist, iti the Gardener's Mag- 

 azine. 



USEPUl. RECEIPTS. 



CHEAP BROTH, WITHOUT MEAT. 



Put a table-spoonfiil of Inner, amongst a small 

 poiful of cold water, a tea-ciipfnl of rice washed, 

 or half a cujiful of barley, a carrot and turnip gra- 

 ted, and a few sliced onions; boil this for an hour 

 and a half Do not |iut in the rice until the broth 

 be nearly ready. 



POTATO FRITTERS. 

 Boil and mash some potatoes ; add a bit of but- 

 ter, white pepper and salt; thin them with milk 

 till they are of the consistency of thick pancake 

 b.'itler ; drop then into a frying pan of boiling 

 dripping. Brown iheiii, and serve very hot. 



TO MAKE A MINUTE PUDDING. 



Siir flour into boiling milk, to the consistency 

 of a thin hasty pudding, an<l in lifleen or twenty 

 minutes it will be tit for the table. Serve with 

 sauce to suit the taste. 



VIRCINIA JOHNNY CAKB. 



Take «iie (|iuiri of milk, warm from the cow, 

 two eggs, a tea-spoonful of salteratus, and Indian 

 meal, surticient to make a batter of the consistency 

 of pancakes, Bake ipiick, in pans previously but- 

 tered, and eat warm. 



RASPBERRY AND STRAWBERRY JAM. 



Take equal weight of fruit and liim]) sugar ;- 

 pick the fruit, and put it on with the sugar in a 

 preserving pan ; put a spoonful or two of water 

 in the bottom of the pan, and stir it fiequently till 

 it boils; allow it to boil for half an hour; scum 

 it, and fill it into earthen pots ; when cold, cover 

 the t0|ps with jiaper. 



STRAWBERRY JELLY. 



Take of the juice of strawberries 4 lbs., sugar 

 2 lbs. Boil down. 



GINGER BEER. 



Ginger beer is made in the following propor- 

 tions : One cup of ginger, one pint of molasses, 

 one pail and a half of water, and a cup of lively 

 yeast. Most people scald the ginger in half a 

 I ail of water, and then fill it up with a pailful of 

 cold ; but in very hot weather, some people stir 

 it up cold. Yeast must not be put in till it is 

 cold, or nearly so. If not to be drank within 

 twenlyfour hours, it must be bottled as soon as 

 it works. 



RELIEF FOR CRAMP IN THE STOMACH. 



Warm water sweetened with molasses or coarse 

 brown sugar, taken freely, will often remove the 

 cramp in the stomach,' when opium and other 

 medicines have failed. 



TO CURE THE DYSENTF.Ry. 



Boil a pint of milk, and thicken it with an egg ; 

 add one large spoonfiil of salt, and the same quan- 

 tity of allspice. — Halifax Far. 



Bread. — Bread made of a mixture of wheat 

 flour and Indian meal, and baked in the family, 

 is, all circumstances considered, the most econom- 

 ical. Bread made of ryeand Indian meal, though 

 cheaper in its inaterial.s, requires so niiich more 

 fuel to bake it, and being less nutritious, can only 

 be more economical at certain seasons of the year 

 when it can be baked witli less e.X|iense of fuel 

 than at other seasons. 



For variety, a mixture of equal parts of wheat, 

 Indian and rye, makes good bread ; it is both sweet 

 and tender. The consumption of bread may be 

 much dirninisbei! by the n.se of potatoes at the 

 princijial meals. Potatoes of a good quality, and 

 properly baked, roasted or boiled, will, by most 

 people, be preferred, in part, to the best bread. — 

 I'liose who will try the experiment must be sure 

 that the potatoes are of the best quality, and that 

 they (ire well cooked. Bread is always dearer 

 than potatoes. — Salem Gaz. 



Tall Grain. — Alpheus Brooks, Jr., of Buck- 

 land, bus sent us some stalks of spring wlieat, from 

 a field of about one acre, in Bnckland, which 

 measures five feet, eleven and a half inches in 

 height. Some oats also, are five feet ten inches. 

 Mr William A Ilowland of Conway, has since 

 brought us a stalk of oats raised on his own farm, 

 which measures exactly six feet. Can any body 

 run up his grain higher? 



Since the above was written, Mr Shaw, one of 

 onr Post Riders, has handed us a sample of wheat 

 from the farm of MrAsuhel Bartlett of Cumining. 

 ton, which iiieasurii'd, when cut, exactly six feet 

 one inch in height ! We are in doubt as to the 

 comparative value of such tall wheat, unless the 

 head Is large in proportion ; yet, can any body 

 "chalk up" higher? — J^Torthampton Cqu, 



